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Group Presentation

Group Presentation

Group Presentations 5/1

"Should College Athletes be Paid? - Andrew, Francisco, Ivan
Strengths - There was good background information. There was also very good acknowledgements of the negative sides.
Weaknesses - A lack of practice was evident. Body fiddling was very distracting.
Questions - Say you do get paid..How many practices can you miss before you get kicked out?

"Violent Video Games" - Pavel, David, Forrest,
Strengths - Nice simple slides. No information overload. Good Research Question. Good voice projection.
Weaknesses - A tad bit of straight card reading. Uninterested body language.
Questions - Are there any positive effects that video games may bring?

Group Reviews

"Show Me The Money" - Dana, Thor, Ben, & JB

Strengths - There was a good amount of real life examples that were used to help us understand the issue better. The volume overall of the speakers were good, and the argument was solid, it had me convinced.

Weaknesses - It seemed a bit unorganized at first, with people hesitating to speak. There was some "reading off the slides" going on. A lot of "um, ya know, and uh" used.

Questions - If sports players do get better compensated, wouldn't that mean that it would be harder to get in the team in the first place? (Same as an interview, the higher the pay, the higher the requirements)
What are the requirements to get into college football?


"Fast Food in America" - Matt, Jose, Brett

Strengths - The pacing of the slides were pretty consistent, except towards the end. A lot of the evidence was actually revelant to the majority of us. Good use of calorie intake chart to interact with the audience.

Weaknesses - The research question was pretty common. I think we all know the answer to it. Refrain from cussing in speech. It might a a benefit depending on your audience but, who knows.

Questions - How has the nutritional value of Fast foods changed over the years? Healthier? Worse?

Annotated Bib

Hoover, Brittany. “Study: Medical Marijuana Legalization Doesn’t Lead to More Crime.” UT

Dallas News Center.  27 Mar 2014. n.p. Web. 09 April 2014. <http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2014/3/27-29241_Study-Medical-Marijuana-Legalization-Doesnt-Lead-t_story-wide.html>.

Hoover’s article, “Study: Medical Marijuana Legalization Doesn’t Lead to More Crime,” follows its title in what it discusses. Hoover takes a well believed claim—that “medical marijuana’s legalization will lead to higher crime rates”—and presents information from a UT Dallas study that argues otherwise, making this article a significant source in the research of decriminalizing marijuana. The UT Dallas researchers conducted an observational study, tracking crime rates nationwide between the years of 1990 and 2006; the results show that in the seven crime types studied (“homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft”), there was no increase in the rates. This is critical in the argument of whether or not marijuana should be legalized, as it gives factual evidence in the change (or lack of) in crime rates instead of mere personal experiences and predispositions to back up claims. The results that this study shows are of no surprise. To have a connection between marijuana legalization and crime rate going up is the contradictory because the majority of marijuana related crimes are simply “possessing” marijuana in the first place. Remove that factor of the policy, basically decriminalizing marijuana, and if anything the crime rates should indeed fall, not rise. There is less incentive to make street deals, less incentive to kill and rob, and overall just less unsafe activity happening in the streets. However, this is strictly truthful only to now. While legalization of marijuana is safe now, as with alcohol, which was also once illegal, it can be abused.

Khatapoush Shereen and Denise Hallfors. “‘Sending the Wrong Message’: Did Medical Marijuana Legalization in California Change Attitudes about and use of Marijuana?” Sagepub. Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. 1 Oct. 2004. Web. 8 April 2014.

<http://jod.sagepub.com/content/34/4/751.full.pdf+html>

Both the authors are accredited with Ph.Ds, with Khatapoush as director and Hallfors Senior Research Scientist The paper raises important questions and imposes studies to analyze the new views for younger audiences. As laws in California changed its policies on marijuana, their studies showed changes in the attitudes of young adults. Young adults now had new ways to go about the topic.  The paper states that the allowance of marijuana will not have a negative impact on use, but on view. The stereotype of marijuana will turn into a good one, though truthfully it is like any other strong medicine, dangerous. The studies conducted were extensive in time and length, revealing a part of the demographics of marijuana uses. The main audience intended for this kind of article for those who are concerned about the status of the legalization of marijuana. Also the demographic can include the youth themselves and researchers of the current marijuana policy. Research was conducted primarily through telephone survey data. The author states that further study is required before coming to a clear concise conclusion of how the marijuana policy will affect attitudes toward marijuana. The reliability of the article reiterates itself by stating the fact that the ages of those interviewed are 16 to 25 years old, and that there may be a bias connection between the use of marijuana and attitude. Of the source, there are plenty of tables and graphs, fluctuating on the difference in views and attitudes of California and other states.

Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language."

    The article "Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language," by Newman and Genevieve Birk, focuses on; how who a person is and what they think of a certain object or idea. It influences how someone write about it. That is the principle of one's selection. If somebody is focusing on a topic dealing with a person they don't like, they can choose to word their ideas in such a way that it creates a very negative connotation.On the other hand, if a person is in good terms with the person they are writing about, the same facts will be written with a positive connotation. The facts and the truth of the existence of that person is the same, however the words are changed, or "Charged." The article stresses how simply having the facts, doesn't make what you say true. And also statistics can lie.

Spring Break SWA

I just recently went to Japan town for the first time during the second week of March this year. It was extremely pretty, and proportional, compared to Chinatown at least. I take that back actually, China town was pretty, but Japan town was gorgeous. Though the buildings were plain and silver/gray, for some reason the entire thing just stood out from the rest of San Francisco. The interior, is where Japan town really shines, there’s colors everywhere, Japanese culture, and souvenirs everywhere. It was my friends last weekend before he had to leave to the marines so I thought we could just go somewhere far away and tourist-like for a change. Most of my friends are also into anime and cartoons and whatnot so I figured why not?

The ethnicities there were well varied and had a mix of groups, but I saw a lot of tourists who were Asian for the most part. There are two malls, and between them, stand this Japanese styled tower. You can confirm to yourself that you are in Japan town when you see this structure. Inside the mall, I didn’t actually buy much so of course I’d love to go back and get some of the unique souvenirs I actually wanted, like a Japanese sandal. And if I was handed a free ticket to go any place in the world? I’d go straight to Oklahoma. My father and the other half of my family lives there and I haven’t seen them in a while. I’d love to have a free trip to go and get spend some quality time with them.

Visual Rhetoric Reflection Paper

 Link to Google Doc


Visual Rhetorical Analysis Paper

Visual Rhetoric Object

Thai Xiong

ENGL1A

March 17, 2014

Visual Rhetoric

My topic is of fast food, and my main theme is many children are obese from overeating fast food. And the fault is no one’s but the parents. My visual object is going to be sort of spin off of Michelangelo’s painting, “The creation of Adam,” except it will be a three dimensional object. I’m going to create a 3D model of out paper, depicting two hands touching. The main difference being, instead of having God and Adam depicted, it will have a hand belonging to a parent, and a hand belonging to an obese infant. In between their hands will be a generic fast food bag, the hands, positioned similar to that of the painting.

I will be using of course, some form of paper and glue to hold together the model. I may use steel/metal wiring from hangers to help keep the form of the fingers. A crazy idea that I had was to have the entire thing made/covered out of McDonald’s bags, but that would be quite costly and I would need a lot of McDonald’s bags. But if I did, do this, it would further increase the effect that it has on its viewers what the cause of the obese infant hand is. In addition, I will have a toy ring placed on the adult hand, to signify marriage; making it obvious that the hand belongs to a parent.

Draft 3

Thai Xiong

ENGL1A – MWF

March12th, 2014                               

Extra Pickles on that Heart Attack please?

The issue of fast food and obesity has been around for – more than it should have. Along the years, different groups have sent their own kinds of messages to relay the truth about fast food. There different sources I have collected are of three different genres of writing; however they all take up the controversy of fast food. Those three genres are an academic journal, a comic strip, and a very interesting video. Yet, when it comes to effectiveness, each genre and medium will vary in effectiveness depending on their own audience and format.

The international Journal of Obesity looks like it should, informative and educational. Everything is very organized, complete with links and sub-links. The authors, Steen Stender, Jorn Dyerberg, and Arne Astrup, each accredited with their own background of health knowledge in Clinical and Health nutrition studies, present their materials with a thesis going against the widespread daily consumption of fast food. But it is not simply saying not to eat fast food because it’s bad, but they have studies shown to back it up. This kind of genre is created to for the general public, data for anyone who wants to absorb and use it. However, its overall demographic exposure is limited because this is a information that acts almost for reference, thus only people actually looking for it will read it. The tone of the journal stays consistently factual and its writing as well is very formal.

 On the other hand, a comic provided by daily-comix.com, is the exact opposite. It relies on humor to relay the same message, and wants to grab attention. The characters in the cartoon are drawn as stubby business men, complete with a tie and quite fat choice of people and how they’re drawn, aims to grasp to the working crowd, whom tend to eat out more because of the busy lifestyle. However, the placing of the comic, on a daily comic viewing site, allows for a broad audience, just the average consumer to view it.  Color-wise most of background and clothing on the people is plain baby blue. Then, in contrast one bright color is planted in the middle of the comic. That highlights the bag, immediately drawing attention to it; a fast food bag that closely resembles something strangely familiar, McDonalds. The visuals are not the only source of humor, but the dialogue is hugely satirical. The entire dialogue box reads as:

Heart attack with extra cheese, heart attack with bacon

, double bypass no pickles, --hey! Where’s my diabetes and large stroke? (Daily Comix)

 Each generic choice on the menu is mockingly replaced with vulnerable health conditions combined with basic condiment options like pickles and cheese. This joke is funny however, it does make the viewer doublethink how it must be to be in his shoes, and it’s that thought that is the reason why this comic was made—for us to think twice before we pay those two dollars.

On a more serious note, the video advertisement “Fast Food and Children,” targets our hearts, not our laugh organs. In full frame motion, this short clip reveals a comparison of a mother about to inject an child with “junk” as the video names it, to feeding your child fast food. The music is tense, and the child is silently drawing, in all his innocence. This combination reaches out to the hearts of any and all who have siblings and family. However most of all, it reaches the hearts of all parents and mothers especially; ending with the line in black and white text “You wouldn’t inject your children with junk, so why are you feeding it to them?

Effectiveness of a text depends largely in part of what the genre and medium the text is actually in. For example, the academic journal would be less effective than it already was, if it had an emotional tone, trying to appeal to pathos would lessen their factual credibility. The strong point of educational articles is that they are there for reference, arguing a point with actual studies. Because the article is very formal, and presents evidence we can see and confirm, one can feel more inclined to believe and think about it more sophisticated. That being said, it is there for reference, the message they are trying to convey is clogged by the fact that its own genre limits what they can actually do. The article itself will not be as effective on its own, but to be used as a reference in a bigger genre, say like a letter or essay against fast food.

Now something like the comic will seem like it will only create a good chuckle. But I think it’s quite effective because once the reader thinks about it, they realize they’re laughing about something that isn’t so funny after all. “Heart attack, double bypass, and diabetes, these conditions are brought to surface, reminding viewers what can really happen to them. Now that’s bound to generate some degree of over thinking. Relating to what the genre is and what it is in relation to its topic also limits its effectiveness on its message. While the comic is very effective, pictures worthy of a thousand words, we can only hope that a huge mass of people will log onto dailycomix.com and stumble upon that particular strip.

 As for the video it will create a moment of sadness and compassion. For the video, its goal is achieved, and very effective it is in. Striking emotions intensely and visually through video(changing images), here you would have one thousand words for each frame. However it’s not effective without weakness. Being effective through emotional visuals mean that the effect last only until their emotional mindset disperses. Likely, the viewers will dodge fast food for a couple times…unless they forget about it in the long run. The effectiveness of this video is complex, very effective in changing the way people look at fast food there and then, but long term efforts may or may not be underwhelmed. There simply aren’t any facts or studies shown in the video that will your brain will retain as knowledge in the future. But that goes both ways. The academic article, while it has an entirety of all the facts, doesn’t lure us in temporarily to keep enough of an audience interested to absorb these facts.

Between the comic strip and the video, it’s a tough call, but the video is more effective and mostly due to the fact that it has more potential. The video, being an ad, already has a bigger audience than a comic strip. Television and video on the internet is so widespread, and comic strips are limited only to those who are looking for them specifically, a similar case with the academic article.  To make a huge impact on the wide demographic of people who consume fast foods, means you have to reach a broader demographic. The academic article is simply stored for reference somewhere online.  In contrast, the video has more potential, as its genre is unlimited. Facts and data can be included alongside the dramatic acting. While an academic article on the other hand, is limited to factual unbiased information, it can’t incorporate exaggerated acting.

These three texts have their own distinctions, but in their own genre, they’re not always similar to each other. The biggest reason that may be the case is audience.  As I emphasized above an audience is different, the entirety of the genre itself will be presented dissimilarly than its other counterparts (of the same genre). In retrospect to a genre and how it says something, it’s important to consider its layout (as discussed briefly above) and limitations. The relationship between a genre and its message and method of relaying that message is crucial to understand the best way to communicate something. A webpage has almost endless limits of information and links and other technical advantages. However, the way this is implemented matters in that in relation to the way it’s trying to say something. Being on the web means that only those with electronics at hand will have access to it. However, newspapers, or videos, advertisements have the advantage of physically being there. The fact that something is in your hands, and you are reading it, seeing it, alters how a message can be stated.

When we eat junk food, fast food, we become them, fat, oily, and high in calories. The same thing follows for what we read. We are constantly shaped by the texts that we read and see daily. We aren’t only what we eat; we’re also what we read and see. But what we read and see are the ads on TV, ads on newspapers, ads on billboards, and ads online. If one surrounds themselves with a certain genre, say, videos that talks about fighting fast food corporations, more likely than not you will grow to be against fast food. Yet at the same time, we are bombarded with advertising campaigns that do just the opposite, promoting fast food.

Sources Cited

 “Fast Food.” Daily Comix. Nd. Web. February 21, 2014.

< http://www.daily-comix.com/fast-food-kind-like-that-comic-1171.html>

“Fast Food and Children.” Youtube. April 23, 2011. Web. February 21, 2014

< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K3F_53Sn34>.

Steen Stender, Jorn Dyerberg, and Arne Astrup. “Fast food: Unfriendly and Unhealthy.” International Journal of Obesity.31. (April 24 2007): 887 – 879. Web. February 21, 2014. < http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v31/n6/full/0803616a.html#aff1>.