Unit 3 Proposal

1) Our Topic: Era of "the domestic housewife" is ending

2) What we want to say in this ongoing argument: We agree that this “era” is ending. We're trying to argue that It’s not a bad thing, it's become more of the norm especially during the recession. More men are staying at home because more women were able to keep their jobs. Ultimately, we are supporting this change in attitude.

3) Target audiences:
-Young men of marrying age (all races , middle/high class)
-Women of marrying age of (all races, middle/high class)
-Young/middle-aged married couples (all races, middle/high class)

4) Genres/mediums we plan on using for this argument:

- Facebook group- Targeting all three audiences

- Apron- Targeting men. We want to make it appealing to them so that they don’t feel emasculated by staying at home.

- Article- Targeting married couples in a men’s magazine…saying that it's okay to stay home and be, "Mr. Mom".

In Class: What did you learn from the reading

From the reading last night I learned a very important factor that can be used when builing an argument: humor. Humor can state a very good argument and it is very effective if used properly. Humor can be an exaggeration or understatement. It can be displayed as satire. Although humor is very effective I also learned that it can exclude certain audiences as well so you must be careful on how to use it.
In my unit 3 we have already discussed some ideas that involve a lot of humor. We feel that humor can definetly relate to certain audiences that we are trying to target. Although we also find that humor isnt appropriate for all our audiences .

In Class: Reading assignment (Chapter 12)

I really enjoyed the reading that we had because it made me look at forming arguments in a different way. I learned that such things as sentence structure, choice of words, punctuation ,and what they referred to as special effects, make a huge difference in the type of argument you are trying to form. The most interesting thing I recieved from this chapter though is that arguments are characterized into high, middle, and low arguments. The book described them as the following: the high arguments are those arguments dressed in tuxedos that are more serious and use more formal writting (big words). The mid arguments are those dressed in work clothes but not soo serious. My favorite is the low argument. This is argument was descibed as the one sitting at the desk with its legs on the desk and most likely to use humor.

Unit 3: Job titles and descriptions.

My group members include Rachel Boom, Holly Rust, and I! Within our group we decided that we would put in lots of teamwork and never leave just one person doing anything by themselves. Although, we did assign certain tasks we also came into agreement that one person wouldn't find themselves writting the entire draft alone or designing the entire visual alone. I really believe my team is going to do great because it seemed like we were all very passionate about helping out and throwing in ideas and that is always good when it comes to group work.
My title is The Queen of Your Vision. I picked this title because it's as creative as I could get and becasue I volunteered to be in charge of the visual and presentation of our visual. Therefore, I will be coming up with interesting and creative visual(s) for our project and bringing forth intresting ideas for them. I really wanted to do this because I love doing artsy stuff like painting crafts and designing things for decoration. So I definetly believe that this will come in handy here.

In class: Group work

My perfect group work situation would definetly include food and listening peers. Nothing bothers me more than having a group who is not willing to hear you out or ask for you consideration. It is just rude and inconsiderate. My ideal group would be one that gives input and freely gives ideas or opinions and also one who is willing to listen to those ideas. An ideal group is also one who is willing to do certain tasks and doesn't hesitate to volunteer. I would also hope for food because food is alwasy awesome.

In Class:reflection on analysis process

I found the analysis process to be a lot more difficult than I had planned on it being. The first obstacle I came across was defining and really knowing what a primary source was. I found this to be even more difficult when I began looking into different sources and reading them. That was a process within itself. It was pretty tricky to try to differentiate between which sources would be correct for this unit and which sources would maybe not be beneficial. One thing that really helped though is when Professor Irvin gave us that handout on how to better understand and be able to tell if my source was primary or not.
Once I found and validated that my sources were indeed primary I found it very difficult to read the articles and write about them "appropriately." It was very hard to try to analyze the argument that each article was making rather than making my own argument and in putting my own opinions. The first thing I realized was that I wasn't completely clear on what making a rhetorical claim about my argument meant. Honestly til this day I am still not completely sure but one thing that did really help me was when Proffesor mentioned that it was better sometimes to "just go." Keep writting.

Unit 2 Proposal

For Unit 2 my topic will based on the national issue of the DREAM Act. Most importantly my topic will revolve around the event that happened on September 21, 2010 when the Senate failed to pass the DREAM Act. To get a better understanding of this issues I will discuss what the DREAM Act is and who it affects.
The DREAM Act states the right for thousands of undocumented (illegal immigrant) students to gain a 6-yr long path to citizenship. These students would be able to gain there citizenship under certain requirements only. These requirements are as follow:

• Must have entered the U.S. before the age of 16
• Must have been present in the U.S. for at least 5 consecutive years prior to the enactment of the bill
• Must have graduated from a U.S. high school or have obtained a GED, or have been accepted into an institution of higher education
• Must be between the ages of 12 and 35 at the time of application
• Must have good moral conduct

The DREAM Act currently affects thousands of illegal students in a college institution and graduates from high school. Varios groups in the U.S. are either for or against this Act. That is why the fact that the Senate did not pass the bill for the second time in history this past September brought about a lot of speculation and arguments. My topic would be based on the arguments that these speculations made regarding this incident.
For my topic I have already found many related sources like articles, blog posting and news interviews (CNN and Fox 4) that responded to the failure to pass the Act. The DREAM Act has it's own website and their are also facebook and myspace pages on the DREAM Act that brought about a lot of responses to this incident.
I chose this topic for two main reasons. It is a very interesting topic and yet a not very known topic to many Americans. Many American still remain oblivious to this topic. Another reason is that I know of close friends here on campus and off that were affected by this topic. Therefore through this paper I myself would like to gain more knowledge of the arguments made about this topic.