argument essay 4 free write

Argument argument argument argument misinformation in the media is a huge issue affecting all citizens of this country. Misinformation can be found is social media and on tv. People are brainwashed to think a certain piece of information is true when in reality, the fact nay have been altered or completely switched. Misinformation affects voters who listen to the misinformation and believe that it is true and go to the voting polls with that false information in mind. They vote for people or policies based on the information they have gathered and may possibly vote for something they would not normally vote for. This is dangerous to democrat since voters are not voting for what they truly want for this country but what someone else had said. Republic Democracy was established in the united states as the main government type through the founding fathers because they wanted to know what their citizens wanted for their country while the officials would work for the people. Misinformation switches the roles of having the government officials telling citizens what they believe is correct and hav e the people work for the government. My head hurts so much and with all this clicking I hear it is just making it worse so I dont feel like typing anything more.

I hate the government and anything to do with politics because everything is so corrupt nowadays. The government abuses the powers that they were given by spreading misinformation to innocent citizens. I believe the main reason for corruption in the government is because people are misinformed on many topics.

Research Question: Is intentional misinformation spread by politicians and other people detrimental to American democracy?

Working thesis: Misinformation can mislead citizens to make crucial decisions by relying on false information, potentially leading them to making a vote they might not normally make which is why misinformation is a threat to Americans and American democracy.

Reasons:
- Politicians; global warming
- People outside U.S.; pizzagate, Germany
- Noncredible sources within the country; welfare, two newspapers about voting

Counterargument: not everyone remembers what they see or hear??

article paragraph

When I first opened the article and read the headline, "No, you're not entitled to your own opinion", I felt very confused. In school, we are generally taught to respect each others' opinions even if we do not agree with them or if they're wrong. We are not supposed to judge other people's characters due to their beliefs. When reading the article, I began to understand how come it is dangerous to say this. If we just allow people to believe something that is wrong without trying to convey them in the right direction, no one will want to learn true facts because they are so stubborn. People need to come to the realization that sometimes their initial view on something may be incorrect and that it is okay to admit that they're wrong and learn what is right. By telling people they are entitled to their opinions, we are creating a safe spot for them to be able to hold false beliefs. This in a way can lead to the cause of misinformation that is spread in American democracy. We tell people it is okay to have the incorrect belief, but then they go out and act to persuade people that what they believe is correct. An example would be global warming. It has been scientifically proven that global warming is a serious issue in our environment. Some people say it is not happening in sake of covering their fears. Because of this, there is misinformation saying that global warming is a conspiracy, which is far from the truth.

White Paper #4 constitution

This was my first time ever actually reading the U.S. Constitution. In school we learned about the preamble along with the 27 amendments, but never addressed what the rest of the constitution has written. The Constitution in Article I Section 2 mentions that “The House of Representatives… shall have the sole Power of Impeachment” but does not expand on the process of impeachment or defines clearly what that exactly means. I thought the Constitution would describe how the whole process should look like and under what circumstances can an elected official be impeached. The impeachment process seems to be very difficult and specific, yet none of that is explained during this section of the Constitution.  The only part that is explained is when the President is being held on trial, but not about what happens before the hearing.

            When reading Article II in the Constitution, the way I understand the election of the Vice President, they have as if their own election but on the same ballot as the presidential candidate. The Constitution states in Article II Section I states, “In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Vice-President” meaning that the Vice President is also voted on. This process seems to have changed over time since now the presidential candidate seems to select their own vice president candidate to run with them in the elections. For example, if someone in the 2016 election were to have selected Donald Trump to be president, they would also have selected his running mate, Mike Pence, to be vice president.

Argument free write

An argument is when a biased topic is presented and a person takes a stance on the issue based on the researched that has been done and explains how come they believe this certain way about the issue. There are no right or wrong answers as long as there are facts that back up the opinion that has been concluded. Arguments does not mean bashing the reader or audience’s personality for example telling them that they are stupid for not agreeing with you. Instead you present facts that conclude that your opinion is the opinion that the audience should hold. Arguments should be well supported and analysis must be done to show the connection between the citation and your opinion on the topic. Overall, you are trying to convince the audience to agree with you through the use of factual evidence. evidence needs to support claim being made

White Paper #3

When elected as a the new President of the United States, there are high expectations placed on the new official. The President is understood as the main representation of the government and its people. The president is supposed to consider the needs of the country and not their own opinions. Donald Trump has avoided the voices of millions citizens, therefore misrepresenting Americans. In my opinion Donald Trump should be impeached, but more research and evidence is needed to remove him officially from office.

Americans may believe that it was a mistake to put Trump into the Oval Office, but there needs to be cold hard facts in order to be able to even think about removing a high official. According to Vox’s Ezra Klein, if America had just incidentally put Trump into office and Trump does not turn out to be either a criminal nor incapable medically to perform his tasks as President of the United States it can be very difficult and dangerous to remove him. Ezra further quotes Representative Brad Sherman explaining that citizens would want physical evidence of the crime Trump is considered to be part of (Klein). Without any proof of misdemeanor, America is stuck with an official they thought would be great for our country. It is very rare to impeach a president as it is only used for extreme cases, therefore it is difficult to part take such actions with Trump without proof of extreme criminal activity about President Trump or medical proof of being misfit as a leader of a country.

There has been ongoing research to find reasons to impeach President Trump. Representative Steve Cohen presents in his speech the five articles of impeachment against Trump including money he has been borrowing from other countries or making on the side despite his salary as President. Cohen explains that there has been viewings of his criminal records, but none of it is considered an “impeachable defense”(Cohen). This just shows that there is not any sufficient evidence to impeach Trump at the moment. There are only belief reasons of what Trump has done and how it can be a threat to the Constitution and democracy, but nothing factual that can be used to impeach and remove Trump at the moment.

Paraphrase practice

Ms. Yancey states that technology allows for a new ways to communicate since it is unique for each individual and meant for others to read. Unfortunately, higher academics do not acknowledge social media as academically proper. At least it is known to have an effect on how students write and receive their grammar and spelling from. Ms. Yancey also states that professors disregard social communication for their own danger.

White Paper #2

In America, having money means you have power. With money, you can pay off all that college debt, buy a fancy car along with a huge mansion, and live a very easy life. Money is also a great tool to bribe people to do what you ask them to do. Today the affluent can influence politicians to block policies that they do not favor. I believe America is no longer a well-working, but a corrupt democracy since the rich and large corporations have a larger influence on policies and politicians.

It is more common for the affluent to their way from policymakers. In the Washington Post it states, “When only the affluent strongly support a proposed policy change, that policy is adopted 46 percent of the time; when only the middle-class strongly support a policy, that policy is adopted only 24 percent of the time” (Critics argued with our analysis of U.S. political inequality. Here are 5 ways they’re wrong.). This statistics comes to show that the upper class are more likely to get the policy they support than are the middle class. In a democracy, all people should be represented equally since a democratic is run by the people. Only a small proportion of the population are affluent, meaning that roughly 46% of policy changes that occur only benefits a small population of citizens. Majority of the American people are not seeing the policy changes only they want to occur 76% of the time.

In addition, there is an advantage for candidates with financial support. Noam Chomsky, a political activist, states, “Obama won over McCain primarily because the financial institutions liked him better so they poured money into his campaign much more than McCain” with the polls agreeing that the advertising gave Obama the advantage (Chomsky). This fact proves to show that money means power. In a true democracy, candidates are given an equal opportunity to express their political stance and voters vote based on what they believe is best for the country. With financial support, candidates have an advantage of getting potential voters’ recognition and then most will vote for a candidate because they have heard of them. A candidate with a great stance can lose to someone who does not have the greatest platform simply because of the money they have from large corporations to expand recognition.

Blog Work 2/14/18

The first excerpt uses simple language that makes it easy for readers to understand. Orfield appeals to ethos by mentioning statistics that make him and his claim credible. Also, Orfield shows that he understands the complexity of the issue by stating that, "The South is still much more integrated than it was before, but the progress is moving backward at an accelerating rate" not denying the fact that there have been improvements. I believe the implied audience may be members of the school board committee to show that segregation in schools still exist. Since there is a lack of pathos, I am not certain that the connection with the audience was effective.

The second excerpt writes in a way that gets to the reader's emotions. Sowell talks about how defenders of affirmative action are not honest and the overall dishonesty when it comes to racial quotas and preferences. Sowell uses studies to show that many more people believe preferences having a negative impact is much higher than those who believe in the positive effects. Sowell also uses an illustration to appeal to pathos by talking about a fight in Berkeley about choosing a private or public ballot. I believe the intended audience is congressmen that do not notice the strict racial quotas that are put into place in higher education. With using both ethos and pathos, I believe Sowell was able to connect with this audience.

The third excerpt uses descriptive language when opening up allowing readers to understand the author's tone of which shows anger and disappointment. This appeals to pathos as the author is showing exaggeration. Meyers uses descriptive words especially when saying, "with every sin of class selection written as with a burning chisel on stone- on that day a great cry will go up throughout the land, and and there will be weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth". This shows the author's negative tone towards elective courses. Meyers uses sources in her argument, but lacks to show or makes it difficult to understand how it supports her claim. I believe the audience is to whoever is in charge of creating the educational curriculum since Meyers argues the fact that electives should be meaningful and useful and require some type of intelligence being used. Since it is difficult to see the appeal of ethos, I do not believe Meyers' connected with the audience well, especially with the over exaggeration of a senior crying since it is difficult to relate to that.

White Paper #1

I believe there should be heavier emphasis on learning American Government, but not in a way that it feels overwhelming to students. When I took A.P. Government my sophomore year of high school, it was only an one semester class. Since the teacher only had 18 weeks to cover a year-long college course, everything was extremely fast paced. Therefore, I felt that I was rushed to memorize facts instead of actually taking the time to actually learn and understand the concepts. If you asked me today to list all the amendments in order, I would be lucky to get a few right. I was shocked to read that, “ … three courses in civics, democracy, and government that were common until the 1960s” (Civic Education and Political Participation). I believe that trend should have continued as students would be required to retain the knowledge learned in civics in order to succeed in the democracy class and so on.

Since I do not feel like I have the knowledge I need to understand what is going on in politics, I am afraid to make a vote that does not truly line up with my beliefs. Although shocking, it makes sense that only one-third of eligible 18-29 year olds voted in the 2000 presidential election because the way civics is taught now in high school is only set up to pass a certain exam instead of actually learning what the U.S. stands for (Civic Education and Political Participation). It is also difficult for young adults to be able to pick out any misinformation, especially if they do not have the basic knowledge behind our government. The younger generation may not realize this, but “the deliberate distribution of misinformation by some politicians, political organizations, and interest groups is common” especially in campaign advertisements (Educating for Democracy in a Partisan Age). This can be dangerous as they head out to vote with the wrong ideas in mind and possibly voting for someone they do not truly stand with. By emphasizing a different curriculum that is slower paced, yet covers important details, students can learn more about how their government and politics work in order to better judge the information that is spread by elected officials.

Full Class Workshop Draft Reviews

Derek Swanson had an overall great story. I felt that I can relate to his family's struggle of how to support themselves financially during the Great Recession of 2008. He can use some development in his introduction when he mentions America does not have a great history. I love how he gives an overview of American history by talking about the Civil War and the Roaring Twenties leading to the recession before starting his narrative. I would have liked to see some more detail in his narrative such as what job did his dad have before the recession and to explain how he felt when he found out that his family was given the ultimatum to catch up on the mortgage or move out. He also mentions "there are certain lessons that only a father can teach his son" which can use some more development as he mentions he was taught to be the man, but what specifically did his dad teach him in order to be strong? One thing I noticed is that sometimes he says "dad" in places where it sounds like it should be "my dad". Having "Dad" is acceptable, but it has to be capitalized since it replaces the dad's name (Ex: after that, Dad/[his name]....). There were a few grammatical errors, but they were not distracting. Overall, his paper is in the later stages of writing an essay that can use more development in general and it answers the essay question of what being an American means to him. Keep up the great work, Derek!

Kerschner also did a great job explaining how come the first word that comes into mind when hearing America is freedom. I love how he introduces the thought of how people have different perspectives on what the United States is as a country since this is exactly what we are exploring when writing this essay. One thing that stood out to me was how he uses Albert Einstein's quote and incorporates it into his narrative on how America represents that quote and how he wants to act upon that in his teaching career, but I would have liked to see him expand on it. Giving an example of how if someone was forced into a job that is difficult for them, they might feel put down. Something that I found very unique was that he presented a counterargument when mentioning freedom of education, even though it is mandatory by law to go to school until you're 16. He mentions how people may have this thought, but he explains why he is right since education ultimately gives you a greater opportunity to get a better job. I would have liked to see this counterargument further developed by further explaining the importance of having a basic education. Maybe a historical example of how poor people stayed poor because they could not afford education or maybe even enslaved African Americans who struggled to gain their right to vote since they could not read. Overall, his paper does a nice job answering what America means to him, but just needs some development.