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.