Rhetorical Analysis Thesis

A Government in Thrall to Religion

While very disagreeable on certain points, Zindler is very effective in delivering a clear-cut argument about how religion has taken over the government. Even for those who are religious, his arguments are very powerful because they are directed with force and backed up with sound logic. Like the "Faith in America" speech, this article fails to see the point of view of the opposing side. However, this articles has a specific audience and is very persuasive to one belonging to that audience.

Zindler appeals to science, not necessarily with facts but with real-world problems that seems to be blatantly avoided by the Bush administration. He also appeals to those who want to be informed by mentioning the ignorance that religion throws on science and reality. His use of rhetoric keeps the reader interesting, feverishly continuing to read to know what he has to say next. Even though this article was published in an atheist magazine, he still strongly appeals to atheists with his call to action being even more urgent because of his use of 'We' and the way he comes across as an authoritative figure by telling people that they have a responsibility to dispel the blind religion in the government due to the Bush administration.

Faith in America

Purpose
          In his speech, Faith in America, Mitt Romney is trying to persuade the public that his religion will not interfere with his presidency if he becomes president.
Ethos
          Mitt Romney is very effective in his ethos because he is a religious man and he points that out very clearly. Even though he is a Mormon, he defines very well that he will not let his own faith or the faith from other religions dictate his actions should he win presidency. His appeal in this category is with his testimony and his experiences that have brought him up to welcome those of any and every faith. He did not apologize for being a Mormon and said that if his faith sinks his candidacy then so be it. He talked about the founders not wanting the president to be a spokesman for their faith.
Pathos
          Mitt Romney said he needed the prayers of every faith, so he is relating to those of every faith. Another way Romney relates is by describing what he loves about every religion. Throughout his speech he uses language familiar to those who belong to various religious faiths, by doing this he becomes even more relatable and also becomes trusted.
Logos
          Romney starts out by explaining one basic belief of the LDS (Mormon) church about what he believes about Christ, bringing his background to support his position. He then goes on to say that he won't speak any more about his faith because he would be taking the very religion test that the founding fathers did not want to happen. Using the goals of the founding fathers as part of his speech he is using logos very effectively because it shows where his goals are as well. Romney makes himself very accountable for his words because he states that he will not denounce or distance himself from his beliefs. One defining part of his speech was when he spoke about freedom and religion and about their necessity of being together. He also spoke about how this was a nation under God, which further solidifies his point that freedom needs religion and religion needs freedom to work out the best way possible.
Extra thoughts
          I feel Mitt Romney’s speech connected very well to those belonging to a religious faith. He related himself to them through familiar language and also through similar beliefs. Making himself seem more human to them and also making himself known as a religious man is very convincing to those of similar beliefs. However, I feel that he had a very large disconnect with the atheist audience. The religious terminology and the fact that his speech mainly reach out to those who belonged to faiths would create the feeling of being excluded for them. Even though his speech was very powerful for his intended audience, it was not a convincing argument to those who do not belong to any particular faith or who are atheist.

Opinion Editorial Reflection

          One of the main strategies that worked for me was putting out a broad topic and narrowing it down. Specifically, I took the topic of specialization and talked about how and why it is bad in the education system. A second strategy that worked extremely well for me was using personal experiences to strengthen my position for my topic. Using sentence combining from what we learned from Style Academy was not my strongest strategy to use. Instead of making unique and creative sentences I would usually over complicate them and end up making long boring sentences, most of them being run-on sentences. I am not usually the greatest at writing papers, so I did not know what to expect from this paper. As I started to write though, I found that, after my rough draft, that my paper had more structure to it and ended up with a more cohesive final draft.
          In my opinion editorial, the thesis for my rough draft was not very clear. However, after reviewing the rest of my paper I could more clearly see what my thesis was. I feel that this will be very helpful in the rhetorical analysis because, by reviewing the smaller points of the paper I will be able to see what the author’s thesis is and what the author wants to convey to their intended audience. In the future I could work on my sentence structure to better convey my analysis of papers.
          Overall I learned a lot from this paper. I learned about balancing ethos, pathos, and logos. I want to be able to maintain this balance in the future. I also want to be able to more readily organize my thoughts for papers so I can be a more efficient writer. These skills combined, along with more organization of time will make writing papers easier and allow for more time to edit my papers.

GASCAP

Generality: Economies change, as does the demand for certain types of expertise and skill.

Analogy: Just as wheat and corn survived the decline of the American farmer, our cultures, our values, and our yearning to understand our acquaintances and ourselves will survive the decline of the humanities major.

Sign: There is no clear if-then statement, but the whole article revolves around the fact the if the humanities majors decline then there is no reason to anticipate the decline of the humanities.

Causality: Fewer humanities majors will mean fewer credentialed literary theorists, hermeneutic circles, and other professions dealing with the humanities.

Authority: Academics do not have unique access to the instructions for being human.

Principal: Those who are upset with the trend of the decline in humanities are told, eat code.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/11/8/let-them-eat-code/

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Generality: The author thinks that Western mothers aren't strict enough with their children.

Analogy: Chinese mothers are more strict while Western mother's aren't strict enough which leads to Chinese children succeeding in academics more than Western children.

Sign: If parents push their children to go further and are stricter then they will be more successful.

Causality: Creates stereotypes and systematic learners out of children but prepares them for the future and lets them see what they're capable of.

Authority: The author is a Chinese mother and has had experience with her own children and raising them with the Chinese method instead of the Westerner method.

Principal: The reader is most likely a Westerner and would agree with allowing their children to be individuals rather than being overly harsh and strict like Chinese mothers (parents) are.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754

Thesis

I've always been strongly opinionated about the fact that the sciences and arts are split. You are only ever allowed to study one or the other. To me, it seems as though our specialized society has become so specialized that we are expected to only ever stay in one field of expertise. In high school, balancing all of the regular classes and taking the classes that would either lead to a future career or become a hobby was always very difficult. I love robotics and I am also interested in music and arts. I had to bend head-over-heels just trying to schedule classes because I wanted to take both band and robotics along with required classes. Now in college there is more freedom, but not quite. Specialization is a great thing because you can do what your best at and focus on that, but the more advanced classes, like a music theory class, are only available to those who are majoring in that field and no one else. Everyone should have a hobby, an interest that they spend time on other than what they do for work. As a computer engineering major, I love to relax by playing the piano. I love learning more about music and find music theory to be as interesting as all of the little details that make up a computer. Because society wants specialized workers we are limited by expectation to choosing one area of knowledge. But is it not the well-rounded worker who is proficient at many skills more desirable?

Intro

Computer engineers, well at least this one, and writing assignments don't play well together. That being said, here goes nothing. 

The Typical List:

Me playing my saxophone at a jazz concert.

• My name is Michael Blomquist
• My hometown is a little place called Goldendale, Washington.
• Definitely on the map if you want to question it.
• I enjoy music.
• I've played piano since I was 5.
• I started on the clarinet but transitioned to the tenor saxophone.

• I love jazz, pop, techno, any non-lerical piano music.

The Not-So-Typical List:

• I have a twin, we're mirror images of each other.
• Found that out because of the dentist.
• If computer engineering doesn't work out I hope my swim practice will eventually pay off so I can compete in the olympics(secret goals).
• I experimentally tried rock surfing once and I didn't receive any major injuries: success
• Cats are warm, soft, and cute...and I love them.
• Dogs, but only big ones, are cool too.
• I am the youngest of 6 with a total of eleven people in my family and I bought all of them different flavors of hot cocoa for Christmas.
• My math is not incorrect, my sister is married and I am now an uncle.
• I reside in the soon to be nonexistent old heritage--the place where I developed my love for varying flavors of non-caffeinated beverages.
• I also enjoy board games, most of which involve strategy. 

• Some of my top favorites to play would be:
• The Duke (look it up, it's like chess but more epic)
• Chess
• Risk
• Robo Rally
• Catan
• Dominion