Response in Tandem with Summary

The answer to the preliminary question is obvious. As we move forwards, our writing assignments will increase in complexity and depth. Effective summarization will clearly be a vital skill for the journey ahead of us, considering the scope of the course. 

The next question posed is much more interesting. Considering my scholastic and post-academia goals, being able to think critically as an involved member in society is paramount for my success. For instance, I highly doubt myself or anyone else can graduate with a degree without the capacity to exceed unintelligible thought. Personally though as a student of physics and philosophy, any work I do in a future career will utilize critical thinking and/or writing 100% of the time. I will not be worth very much as a philosopher if I have not carefully reflected upon the views of others, or able to sufficiently back up my own premises. More so, I will not be able to contribute much to scientific advancement if I do not analyze my findings and present them in a clear and understandable format.

Considering texts from various perspectives has expanded upon my understanding of being an author. Writing is very much a means to an end. It can be crude and blunt, or beautiful and poetic. By carefully adjusting the ratio and variety of pathos, ethos, and logos anyone can be an effective social engineer. The approximate ratios and varieties can be determined by considering your planned audience, and their likely impressions of you as an author. Depending upon purpose, an author is very much an embodiment of a double edged sword. One can either be honorable and just, or cunning and manipulative. However, critical reading grants us insight into an author’s motives. This can be seen in a recent reading of ours, by Kirkham, on for-profit schools. I think it is better to sum that up first, and then explain further. Yes, part 2 is in part 1.

In Senate Legislation Targets Aggressive Recruiting of Veterans by For-Profit Colleges, Chris Kirkham starts by stating for-profit colleges are “aggressively recruiting” (182) veterans in order to access their federal benefits. The author continues to add how federal benefits are desirable to for-profit schools for more than just financial gain. Mr. Kirkham explains that for-profit schools legally cannot earn more than 90% of their revenue from federal sources. The writer then indicates a technicality, that veteran GI bill student benefits are not considered federal funds. Because of this detail Chris Kirkham shows that these veteran benefits do not count toward the 90% law for for-profit schools. Referencing a senator, the author presents how a proposed bill could remove that technicality, rendering GI funds as federal funds to for-profit schools. Kirkham follows this up with quotes from other authors discussing the same conversation to add further detail. The writer then addresses the relationship between veterans and for-profit schools, claiming it is not mutually beneficial. The author elaborates that not only are for-profits schools more expensive, but that those who graduate from for-profit schools have a higher rate of unemployment than public school graduates. Kirkham transitions to explain how these for-profit schools are intentionally gaming the system, and are not secretive about doing so. The author concludes his article saying how despite being a problem, the for-profit school industry is lobbying against the bill proposed to continue to secure their large revenue streams. 

Considering the rhetorical elements of this piece we can see that the author’s goal is to inform and convince the reader that the situation is unjust, and should be against what the for-profit industry is doing. Not all social engineering is immoral.

 

Blog #1 -Jake Romano

Blog One

Learning how to critically read and or analyze/summarize a piece of work is cleanly a very important topic for P1 and for the rest of this course. Learning to do this action not only will help is the class later down the line when work per say on P3 when we actually have to do research but also in other classes and coursework. Having this critical reading ability will further help me especially going into medicine and continuing with biochemistry. Making those long boring textbooks much easier to understand and to digest rather than just a read and pick up nothing. Like riddle me this what would be the point of reading 100 pages out of a complicated text if you couldn’t even grasp why you are reading in the first place. These skills will greatly benefit me and my career choice I am most certain of it.Learning that “text” can come in different forms, have become very informative. I never thought a blog or a tweet or a post on Facebook was really a text or that it could really be seen as a reading; Or that “text” could be taken far beyond the realm of reading/writing, with the assignment of analyzing bumper stickers it opened up to me that that text had a much broader meaning than just a reading. That text could be used in our everyday lives to analyze situation even people.

Secondly, I have chosen to do write about the Seth Davis article for P1. This article was about the never ending argument in college sports whether or not student athletes are getting paid enough for what they do. Davis made a lot of good points in his article and I very much enjoyed how he supported all of his claims with facts. The article also conveyed a lot of emotion, as Davis seemed very passionate about what he was writing and the purpose he was trying to get across. I am also choosing to write about this article because I agree with Davis’s purpose for writing as well. I don’t feel like much if any college athlete should be paid extra on top of the tuition, food, and housing they are already getting. In my own opinion college sports are like a job… an athlete got recruited or in other words hired to do their job. They are getting paid(via tuition, food, housing, tutoring) to do their job. At the college level of play that is their pay. Once and if they go pro that’s when they should get paid hard cash. Another part that I don’t feel Davis touched on at all but should have, If college athletes want to be paid for doing their job then they should also suffer consequences for not doing their job. Case in point am I heated about the football performance on Friday? You bet yourself i’m triggered. Why are we building a multi-million dollar stadium for a team that can’t put up a score until the last quarter of a football game.

Better yet why haven’t the “pay” of the athlete's been hurt… all things to think about but I do not and I repeat do not think college athlete need any more money for what they do… and that's coming from a former one.

Blog Post 1

Part One:

                       Learning to effectively summarize the main points of any body of text is an essential skill to me as a student in CO150, but also as an active citizen who likes to think that he is at least slightly formally educated. To be able to communicate the idea behind a text is crucial to many aspects throughout daily life. For the purposes of this course, I believe that moving forward, my ability to summarize an article will help me with any assignment that is based around a reading. So far, my ability to summarize an article has helped when in class we were asked to reveal our thoughts about the article by Seth Davis. To express my thoughts, I first needed to discuss the main points of that article so that I could reference them when drawing conclusions. This helps the reader follow my line of thought and allows me to more accurately relay to them what my position is. Without my ability to effectively communicate the main points of an article in a clear and concise manner, none of this could be made possible.

                       To be able to think critically as a writer as well as an individual in society is hugely beneficial because it allows you take in information and process it while still being conscientious of the author’s bias and purpose for creating the text. In today’s day and age, it is safe to say we are constantly being subjected to a slew of information whether that is from the news, social media, billboards, or radio. As such, being able to critically take in all of that information and process it while taking into account any bias is incredibly useful to being able to understand the world around you. Without this skill, it would be impossible to ever formulate an opinion that is different from those that are being constantly barraged in front of us. It is similar to the idea portrayed in the article “Combating Myths About Distance Education” by Todd Gilman that we read for class. In the article Gilman describes that any classroom will only be as good as the people in it. If the professor and the students are engaged, prepared, and responsive then a positive classroom environment will be born. If everyone took the time to thoroughly and critically think about information that is given to them, then a more positive nurturing environment would be born in which people can freely discuss the ideas that they have created. The problem is that this is not usually the case though, where someone may read only part of a source, missing crucial information. After this they go on to formulate an opinion without knowing everything they could have about the situation. Being able to effectively view a text from multiple points of view has helped make me realize more about the author and situation they are writing about.

Part Two:

                       For P1 I will be writing about the article “Combating Myths about Distance Education” by Todd Gilman. Gilman begins by stating his credentials. He is an academic librarian at Yale University and has been teaching courses online since 2002. He continues on to discuss the current social stigma that is tied up with online teaching and how this has affected his career. He believes that some large universities can neglect their staff of online teachers because they are seen as less valuable than their face-to-face counterparts. Gilman then discusses how online learning is facilitated by the student and how there is more individual responsibility on the student than the professor in an online environment if the student wishes to succeed. A good online professor will help negate the amount of responsibility that a student has by being extremely organized. Gilman believes that the key to an online course going smoothly for everyone involved is to have a thorough course design from that start. Gilman ends the article by discussing how online courses do not have the platforms that they need to support them. He concludes by discussing the fact that something as simple as being able to effectively navigate the course website will determine the success rates of the class.

Blog Post #1

Part One: 

Summarizing is an essential skill, and contributes to your understanding of the content being summarized. If you can sit down, and summarize a piece of text, this leads to being able to fully discuss the content being presented to you, and participating in full discussions abut the content. The benefits I see from being able to think critically as a writer is a deeper and more exclusive understanding of the text. If the think deeper than just the surface of the text, it will not only allow you to present deeper points during discussion, but will also allow you to fully comprehend the points that other students present This leads to a more engaging discussion, and a more effective learning environment in the class in general. Thinking critically as a writer would also help you in society, allowing you to read a text like a newspaper or a magazine, and fully comprehend the text, and also be able to have a fully intellectual conversation about the text. For example, reading the article by Seth Davis about if “College Athletes Should Be Paid,” gave me a better understanding of a very significant situation that is currently going on, and thinking critically about it allowed me to be able to discuss it with my peers. Using different texts like tweets and blogs has completely changed my understanding of writing. Before this class I only viewed things like essays and books to be texts, because that’s what I was led to understand. Now that I’ve learned that texts are more than academic, I have taken a different look at everything in society today. I scroll through my twitter feed, and think critically about what other people have to say. I also apply this skill when I go out in the world, For example looking at billboards and signs I now can pull out the deeper meaning that the author of these forms of advertising actually is trying to present.

Part 2: 

             For P1 I am going to choose the article by Seth Davis called “Should College Athletes Be Paid? Why They Already Are.” In this article Seth Davis is discussing a controversial issue with college athletes today, where they believe they should be paid with cash, instead of through tuition and housing and board, because they feel like they are getting taken advantage of. Seth argues that all of this is already enough, they are going to school for free to play this sport, and that’s how these major Universities pay their athletes that make them literally millions of dollars. He even goes far enough to sarcastically state that he hopes his kids get “exploited” by one of the prestigious schools of America for their athletic talent. Seth also discusses the issue of college athletes receiving scholarships. He states that this would lead to the reason that these student athletes go to certain Universities. For example, he states that the athletes would be in the middle of a bidding war of Nike and Under Armour for them to go to either Maryland (Under Armour), or Oregon (Nike). Then in conclusion, Davis ends the article with discussing the issue of these student athletes receiving free education is enslavement, and he states that “If that’s the great watershed idea of our time, then we are living in a very dry world indeed

Part One:

           Learning to summarize larger bodies of writing will help improve my comprehension skills. I will become more efficient at picking out the important aspects of a piece and deciding if what the author is saying is credible or not. I’m in the process of studying Business Administration at CSU and efficiency is a quality that will help me with any career in the future. Learning to think critically really helps me gain a better understanding of the ideas that others are presenting. With a better understanding of those ideas, I can better express my own ideas as well as share others’ ideas in an appropriate manner. For example, in class we practiced breaking down articles and filling out the rhetorical situation which helped us identify the critical aspects of a piece. Learning to view texts in different ways has shaped my understanding of writing in several ways. In my mind I have always separated social media from academic writing. I never really thought that they would both intertwine except with major newspaper and magazine companies like Forbes and The Washington Post. I always thought that social media was primarily used as a casual way to connect with people and to promote businesses. I am starting to discover that social media is also a huge part of expressing thoughts and ideas on controversial topics. I found the debate about whether college athletes should be paid or not very intriguing. That piece caught my attention the most between the three we read. The Chicago Tribune posted this article on Facebook about college athletes being asked to sign a waiver that allows the NCAA to use their name and image without giving the athletes compensation. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-ncaa-waivers-met-20150326-story.html#page=1

 Articles and videos found on social media that present a topic open for debate allow people who are interested in the topic to speak up and share their own opinions. Hearing everyday people speak their mind about a specific topic can give me multiple perspectives on the topic which can strengthen my own opinion. Authorship is easier to obtain with posting to the internet in various ways although, it does also allow for more criticism. Anyone who reads an article online can comment about it in any way. With exposure to more people, more criticism can be expected.

Part Two:

            In Seth Davis’ article “Should College Athletes be Paid? Why, They Already Are” he touches on many problematic topics that deal with the issue of whether or not college athletes should be compensated for their work. Davis strongly states that “[…claiming] that college athletes earn ‘nothing’ Pure fiction” (Davis 299). He backs up his statement with facts about free tuition, athletes being in a free market and the “cost of attendance” issue. Another strong point that Davis makes is the possibility of cheating going on in universities with college athletes. He justifies his statement saying that an honor system is only as effective as the university enforces it. Davis uses strong ethos, logos, and pathos throughout his piece that builds his credibility and grabs the attention of someone interested in the topic of compensation with college athletics.

Article: “Should College Athletes be Paid? Why, They Already Are” Seth Davis, Sports Illustrated, 2011

Blog Post #1: Close and Critical Thinking for P1 (Sarah Foss)

Part One: Thinking Critically as a Writer and an Individual in Society

     Learning to summarize larger bodies of work will be beneficial to me as we move forward in our curriculum, because it will not only help me prove to myself that I have digested the information that is important in a given text, but it will also help me to simplify the most important information into a more concise explanation, making it easier for me to organize my thoughts on the given subject. Learning to think critically both as a writer and as an individual in society will help me to challenge and analyze any information I am taking in. It is not only important to critically understand the information in any given situation, but it is also crucial that I am able to form an opinion and a sufficient argument regarding these situations. In order to contribute to society in an intellectual way, I believe it is important to be able to do all of these aforementioned things sufficiently. Learning to view different texts varying from advertisements, Tweets, blogs, articles, letters, etc. has shaped my understanding of writing and authorship, because each of these different texts have very different approaches to writing style. For example, advertisements often use some sort of appeal (Logos, Ethos, Pathos) to persuade an audience to take a certain action. Tweets offer opinion in a very informal and concise way due to the 140 character limit. Blog posts offer fairly subjective information in a simplified summary form. Articles generally offer factual information based off a pool of research done by the author. Letters generally offer the emotional opinion of the author/speaker. It is important for me to understand the differences between these writing categories so that I can transfer the techniques used in these to my own writing. For example, in Professor Nathan Brown's "Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B Katehi," he has a very emotional approach to his writing in order to persuade his audience (in this case being Chancellor Katehi) to take a certain action. His ultimate goal is to persuade Chancellor Katehi to resign. He specifically uses a large amount of Pathos and Ethos to establish a stronger argument. Furthermore, in our first Twitter post, we had to simplify our own opinions about a given text into 140 characters. This character limit was important, because it forced us to synthesize our thoughts into a short and coherent text.

     Moreover, this advertisement conveys a very emotional response through visual. The visual representation of the gun shadow evokes a very specific emotion (Pathos), making it clear to the audience that smoking kills. The goal of this specific advertisement is to persuade smokers and even non smokers not to smoke. All of these text categories achieve their desired purpose through different techniques, and it is important for me as a writer and individual to be able to analyze them.

Part Two: Academic Summary-"Combating Myths About Distance Education" Todd Gilman

     Todd Gilman, an academic librarian at Yale University, has two main purposes in his writing. These purposes are to argue that online courses require just as much work for the students and staff involved, and to inform his audience of teachers how to properly structure an online course. Gilman claims that the unfavorable attitude toward online courses is due to the bad reputation those few unsuccessful online courses have gotten, and he also claims that "the attitude also seems to be connected to the very idea of online teaching, as though no real college-level content could be delivered or absorbed without face-to-face interaction between teacher and students" (100). He also describes the bad reputation that online teachers, like himself, get at universities. To combat this reputation of online teachers and courses, he includes that he has also taught traditional face-to-face courses and that good "traditional" teachers can transfer this good teaching to their online courses (logos/ethos). Moreover, Gilman acknowledges the other side of the argument by evaluating the argument that "any number of possible factors could affect the quality of instruction" (101). He successfully refutes this side of the argument by stating that "crucial factors in online instruction are organization and, related to that, course design or presentation of material," while including that both of these components must be present in online and traditional courses, or neither will be successful. He later claims that the responsibility of students in online courses is just as high, if not higher, as that of traditional courses, due to the amount of self-accountability in these online courses. He states that "students have to be up to the challenge of learning online, meaning that there is a level of maturity required that is less necessary in a physical classroom" due to the inevitable amount of "spoon-feeding" that goes on in traditional courses (103). Furthermore, he informs his audience how to properly design an online course through the proper use of courseware, course organization, and a welcoming attitude to students that would be present in the traditional classroom. Some of the courseware options he includes are eCollege, WebCT Vista, Blackboard, Blackboard Vista, Angel, and Sakai. The welcoming attitude he is talking about portrays sufficient availability and approachability in online classes that would be available in traditional courses. All of these things are a combination of how Gilman believes an online course should be structured.

Blog 2 Texts/EHE Summary for P1

Part one:

As a college student in the 21^st century there seems to be a constant stream of information bombarding and pleading for our attention.  Being able to summarize and understand the general idea of a text and critically analyze this information will help keep the influx of information in order.  Being able to discern what is credible and valuable information and what is biased and manipulative information is becoming a necessary skill to be able to form valuable and accurate opinions on topics.  Texts can be traditional forms of writing such as articles or books or they can come in less traditional forms such as tweets or billboards.  It is important to realize that all forms of text are trying to communicate a message and are often trying to persuade.  Being able to summarize the message that a text is attempting to communicate will help people become more aware of what these texts are trying to persuade them of. 

http://www.jta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Billboard.jpg

This billboard exemplifies how texts come in various forms.  The hard part about these very short texts is that they convey a strong message without much fact.  The message behind this billboard may be true or it may be untrue.  It is the responsibility of the reader to research the facts behind this statement before coming up with a strong opinion.

Another example of this can be seen in the article “Senate Legislation Targets Aggressive Recruiting of Veterans by For-Profit Colleges” by Chris Kirkham.  This is a more traditional text form but it is crucial to critically analyze this text and understand how the message is being communicated.  A quick glance at the text and it is clear that Kirkham uses a lot of statistics and facts.  However upon closer examination of the text it is clear that the statistics that Kirkham chooses to use statistics clearly in his favor.  While this is not bad, one must remember that there are statistics for the other side of the argument and the opposing statistics should be contemplated before creating a personal opinion on the topic. 

Being able critically analyze pathos within an article allows the reader to decide if using the pathos in this situation is appropriate.  For example Kirkham’s line “Unfortunately, I think military folks at this point are seen like a dollar sign wearing a uniform for many recruiters in a for-profit model” tends to evoke emotion in people as it creates a scenario that victimizes veterans (183).  However this quote fails to mention why it is bad that veterans are seen as dollar signs or an opportunity to make money.  A business will inherently view their customers as a source of money.  I am not arguing for or against for-profit colleges but am simply pointing out that this seems like an inappropriate and slightly manipulative form of pathos.  Logically analyzing a text will help readers to pick out the important details of the text.  This can help them create a summary, which is a powerful tool to figure out the true meaning behind a text.

Part two:

Seth Davis uses his article “Should College Athletes be Paid? Why They Already Are” as a text to persuade his readers that college athletes are compensated for their efforts and do not need more monetary compensation.  This text original was published in “Sports Illustrated” in April 2013.  This shows how the audience that Davis was writing for are likely sports fans and athletes.  This article was written in a time where some schools make tremendous amounts of money off of their athletic programs, especially football and basketball.  The opposing arguments against Davis are often centered on the fact that athletes generate lots of revenue for their schools and therefore deserve compensation. 

However Davis provides a solid argument and rebuttals for many of the opposing arguments.  His success is due to the fact that he successfully uses logos, ethos and pathos in his writing.   He uses lots of different approaches for his arguments, but the main idea behind his argument can be broken down into several pieces.  He first gives examples of how students are compensated for their efforts through scholarships, food, rent money and the overall experience of playing college sports.  He then gives the example that only 14 out of 120 programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision are profitable to highlight fact that most schools actually lose money from their athletic programs.  His final major point of attack is that if college athletes want to make money they can just join a professional league.  In other words no one is forcing them to be a college athlete and they are free to leave the team if they truly feel like they are being taken advantage of.  Davis is able to go into depth with each of these arguments to help convince his readers that what he is saying is backed up by facts and logic.  This article was well written and while it is not infallible it creates a convincing argument.