SWA #21

1. The author is arguing for people to start reading text instead of relying on someone to tell them what it is about. You can tell by the way the people he writes about act. They do not want to read the text and they try to find ways around just reading the whole thing. They hope someone else will tell them what it says if it is important.

2.  The author use it by writing about people who struggle to read a text. They use hyperbole to emphasize the absurdity of people not being able to read a 500 word text.

SWA #18

    The three issues I came up with are the solution to world hunger, nature conservation, and the amount of sleep college students get. World hunger is my global issue. Researching it was not that hard, however trying to find a common answer to the solution proved to be difficult. It could have been that I just did not type it in the correct way to get the results I needed. Nature conservation was even more difficult. Only using Google Scholar it came up with results, but they did not seem to address what I wanted them to. I was looking more for how conserving nature helps the environment and the benefits of it. But, I did not really find that. My third issue is my local issue, it is the amount of sleep college students get. It could apply to any college campus but I felt a personal connection because I don't sleep very much during the week. I was thinking about researching how much sleep students get compared to the recommended amount of sleep and the effect lack of sleep has on people. When researching this issue I found a large variety of articles, much more than the other two. Because of this, and my own lack of sleep, I am thinking about using this issue for my paper.

What Defines A Sport Response SWA #19

1. Andriesen says that while there are many things involved in what makes something a sport there are some things that are found in most arguments about what a sport consists of. These are the listed factors:

• when there is a ball or something like a ball 
• if it is a race
• when the competitors compete at the same time against each other
• when there is a score 
• with a certain level of physical effort

Not everyone would agree with these factors. Andriesen states that as far as determining what is and what is not a sport people will never agree. The author never reveals his personal opinion on the issue.


2. When making a sport official it would be important to have accepted criteria. This way there would not be a dispute about whether it was a sport. If it fit the criteria it would be a sport.

Why Factory Farms Threaten Your Health Response

    This article, written by John Robbins, deals the use of antibiotics in factory farm animals. The claim is that there is an increasing amount of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. The reason for this, according to the author, is the use of antibiotics in factory farm animals. In factory farms all of the animals are treated with antibiotics. This is to prevent illness, that would happen because of the poor conditions the animals live in. These animals are then consumed by humans. It is already known that more bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. The argument is whether factory farm animals have contributed to this. I found this argument to be very convincing. The author uses scientists' research about the subject as evidence. The Institute of Medicine is an example of someone doing research that confirms the author's argument.

Outline for Visual Analysis

Title: A Visual Analysis of Emporio Armani Diamonds Advertisements

Thesis:  The advertisements use fame and physical appearance to appeal to the audience.

I. The elements used in the advertisements.

    A. The way the advertisements look.

       1. The use of black and white.

       2. Images used

       3. Layout of the advertisements

       4. Logo for Emporio Armani

   B. The people in the advertisement.

       1. Beyonce Knowles and Josh Hartnett

       2. Other people in the Diamonds for men advertisement and the exclusion of other people in the            Diamonds for women advertisement.

II. The intended audience of the advertisements.

    A. Who the advertisement appeals to.

         1. Women in the Diamonds for women advertisement

         2. Men in the Diamonds for men advertisement

         3. Young adults

    B. What the audience wants.

         1. Why they buy the product and what they hope to get out of it.

         2. What the audience values.

III. Cultural issues involved in the advertisements.

    A. Fame

        1. The importance of fame in society 

        2. The way the advertisement uses fame.

    B. Physical Appearance

        1. The importance of physical appearance, especially youth, in society

        2. Physical appearance of the people in the advertisement 

Conclusion: Fame and physical appearance, two things society values, are used in the advertisements to make the product appealing to the audience.

Animal Cruelty: A Conservative Cause

    The essay "Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism for Animals," by Matthew Scully, focuses on animal cruelty especially in factory farming. It questions the moral responsibility people have for animals. Scully, a conservative himself, brings up that conservatives often dismiss animal rights issues as a liberal cause. He argues that it is an issue every human should be concerned with regardless of being liberal or conservative.

    Scully says that "conservatives have a way of dismissing the subject" (107) of animal-rights because they don't see it as being a serious issue. And that the conservative view is that they should stand by while liberals fight for animal rights. When the subject comes up often the only commentary from conservatives is to ridicule animal-rights groups. (Scully 108) Instead Scully says, conservatives side with the animal-related industry. 

    Scully says that conservatives can use " the usual distinctions..." to "...draw between moderation and excess, freedom and license, moral goods and material goods, rightful power and abuse of power..." and that this will work to decide what is right. (108) This shows that the issue can be evaluated from the conservative point of view. 

    Conservatives, according to Scully, "if (they) do nothing else about any other animal issue, ... should attend at least the factory farms" because they should know about what happens there. (113) Instead of turning their heads and saying they don't want to know about what happens they should take the time to learn about what really happens. 

    Scully appeals to conservatives in several ways. He uses the fact that he is a conservative himself. He brings up conservatives who dismiss animal-rights. He brings up moral points that conservatives agree with. He also appeals to conservatives on the level of just being human. He talks about issues that all humans are or should be concerned with. This is the basis for Scully's case for the conservative cause of animal-rights.

Two Advertisements for a Rhetorical Analysis

The two advertisements I chose are for perfume by Georgio Armani they are from the same collection, one is for men and one is for women.

• Features a celebrity- Beyonce Knowles
• She is alone
• She is singing, holding a microphone stand with microphone
• Two lights shining in the background
• Also in the background something that looks like a blown up image of the perfume bottle
• Her hair is blowing like it's windy
• She is wearing a strapless sparkly dress that stops mid-thigh
• She is standing with her legs apart
• The background is black
• The advertisement is in black and white
• Beyonce is on the right side
• Logo is in the middle left
• Perfume bottle is in the bottom left
• Perfume bottle resembles a diamond
• Beyonce appears to be looking down at viewer

• Also features a celebrity- Josh Hartnett
• The advertisement is in black and white
• Other people in the ad
• Top half of body is shown
• Wearing a suit
• Suit jacket is open
• Shirt is unbuttoned on the top
• Tie is loosened
• Josh is smiling and staring directly at viewer
• Logo and perfume are in the bottom right corner
• There is a man to Josh's left in a suit wearing sunglasses
• Hands to his left, one above, and to his right reaching towards him or reaching out
• Woman to his right looking at him, mouth open 
• She is grabbing him, holding onto his shirt
• Someone else seems to be grabbing her

In choosing my two advertisements I wanted two that were the same brand. I wanted to compare the same brand in different advertisements. To find two with different audiences I thought about different locations and gender. I thought perfume would be good in finding different gender based audiences. I could simply pick on for men or women. I found the ads seperately in my search for two and decided they would work well since they are so similar. A big difference between the two would be that the female advertisement shows Beyonce alone. She is beautiful and famous and she uses this perfume. The male one features a celebrity that is not as well known as Beyonce. He is surrounded by people who are all eager to see and touch him. The people featured are young, good looking and famous. They are the face of this product and the audience associates this product with these qualities.

Advertisements

Advertisment #1

    This is an advertisement for a cosmetic product made by Lancome. It is from an issue of Vogue magazine.  Older women are the target audience. It is not clear what the product is exactly but it comes in a bottle and would be used instead of having a cosmetic procedure. My guess is this product is for getting rid of wrinkles. The target consumer values beauty and wants to look youthful. The claim is that this product is just as good as a cosmetic procedure.

Advertisement #2

    This second advertisement is for face makeup by Laura Mercier. It appeared in an issue of Vogue and the target consumer is women. The women in the advertisement are in black and white. The product is advertised as something to enhance your skin. The women in the picture have the same gray skin. The image of the makeup placed beside them is in color. The makeup also is advertised to be in many colors for different skin colors. The consumer values her appearance and wants to enhance her skin. This product claims to enhance your skin. The images suggest that this product will make you beautiful and that your natural beauty will stand out against the gray.

Advertisement #3

    The third advertisement is for Moroccanoil and it appeared in Vogue as well. The target consumer is women who value their hair and want a product to make it look healthy and beautiful. The women in the advertisement are two young Caucasian women with light colored skin. One women has curled blond hair while the other has straight brown hair. These women are an indication of who uses the product or who the product is aimed towards. The claim of this product is that by using it you will have beautiful healthy looking hair.

Postsecret card

1. The secret my card revealed was that Lady Gaga was not born the way she appears. This is stated explicitly through the text that reads "I Was Not Born This Way."

2. The visual element included is a picture of Lady Gaga as a motorcycle woman hybrid. The purpose of this image is to show of one of the ways that Lady Gaga is portrayed but was not born.

3. The entire card is black and white except for Lady Gaga's lips, which are red. This was not done on purpose. The text "born this way" was already part of the image and I left it attached. Above it I added "I was not" in letters individually cut out and placed slightly crooked. The font is the same, the added letters were taken from a duplicate image and added to this one. The added text is meant to look like something Lady Gaga might have added herself with the help of some scissors and a glue stick.

4. I wanted to portray Lady Gaga as someone revealing a secret that she believes no one knew about her. This shows her as someone who is detached from people and the reality she believes they see. She thinks they believe what they see even if it is absurd.

5. The viewer is told a secret they already know. They should feel amused that Lady Gaga felt the need to tell this "big" secret even though anyone with common sense could look at her and see that her costumes are not something she was born with.