Jabari's English 111 Blog 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

English 111 Rhetorical Analysis

Jabari Stafford

Professor Stephen Brandon

English 111

10/5/12

Rhetorical Analysis

“Decline and fall of America starts at the bus stop.” This argument was published on September 12, 2012. The author’s argument is based on the way America is pretty much becoming “soft”, in the educational realm. This argument is not considered completely persuasive to me because some parts are and some parts are not, but it is insightful. The overall structure of this argument is basically acknowledging the differences in the life of youth nowadays, compared to the upbringing of past generations.

He says the downfall of America begins at the bus stops. Parents are doing too much and being over protective of their children. He also gives examples of these actions. For example, Hinkle says,” going to the bus stop used to be a stoic ordeal, not a festive occasion. Your folks might march you to the proper spot, if it was your first time, but after that you were on your own.” He also said something about how parents are already outside waiting for the bus afterschool to get their children. This all ties into the reasons children of America are nowadays so-called ‘soft.” From his article it is expressed thoroughly that he believes there is a widening gap in the mental, moral, and ethical strength between generations. He addresses modifications in school systems to accommodate children’s safety and comfortability due to the possibility of recognized dangers of one drastic exposure of its existence. The luxury in some children’s lives cause them to be weak. Being they have not experienced enough hardship or struggle and have been pampered for the majority of their lives, the results show. The children who live in privation and actually experience hard times become fighters and persevere through their troubles. “When those of us of a certain age were growing up, playgrounds were surfaced with gravel. Sometimes even scrap metal and broken glass. It hurt like heck, but it made a man out of you.”

The overall argument is characterized as mostly logos and ethos, since it is mainly based on Hinkle’s logic, facts, and experience. Pathos was never used in this argument, being that pathos is emotion. If I was to show someone else this argument they would possibly agree with my analysis of the argument. I do not remember the author switching appeals much, he remained with ethos and logos throughout the whole argument.

In conclusion, I do not fully agree with this argument. Many individuals have been through their fair share of struggle, but it does not make everyone tough, or stronger than another individual. Overall, America is definitely not becoming “weak” or “soft”. This is not the strongest argument in my opinion. It did not have an appeal effective enough to lead me towards agreement with the author of the article.

Englsih 111 Activity Review (Math Tutoring)

Jabari Stafford

English 111

Professor Stephen Brandon

9/6/12

Math Tutoring Activity

There are many ways that you can ensure a quality experience that comes to furthering your education, one of those ways is tutoring. My major, liberal arts requires certain classes. The classes I decided to take are MTE 6-9, English 111, and SDV 100. In my math class I have had a sizeable amount of difficulty understanding some of the work. So to alleviate the level of stress due to difficulty I signed up for tutoring sessions in the Academic Support Center. The Support Center helped me find a tutor which turned out to be another student who attends J Sargeant Reynolds Community College. I was expecting another professor or instructor to assist me. My appointment with the tutor would be, September 5^th, 2012, at ten o’clock AM. This was the best time for my tutoring session because my MTE class starts at eleven o’clock. I would have an hour to go over problems with the tutor. The tutoring session took place in the library. I did appreciate the fact that it was on time and I did not have to wait for anyone to prepare for the session. I did not have a personal computer so we utilized one of the many computers in the library. Usually when a tutor helps you with a class it has a great effect on your overall understanding of the subject, but in this particular session, the results were not good. There were many problems that could not be fixed during the tutoring session. At J sergeant Reynolds Community College the tutor can only help with the work that has already been completed. Therefore, she could do but so much to help me with my assignment. So after being told I cannot be helped with my homework that is not completed, we went over problems I did complete. The problems I completed were already corrected so I did not feel there was any reason to go back and do them again. But I did not want to completely waste an hour of what is supposed to be tutoring, so we just practiced the homework problems I completed from before. I explained to her how the tutoring did not help me, because I would be leaving the session the exact same way I came in. Although, it was not helpful, I did appreciate the effort from the tutor. I am sure if she was allowed to help me with problems I struggled with, then she would. I honestly would not recommend the tutoring to the students who need help with an assignment they cannot finish because they would be kind of wasting their time. I would recommend tutoring to the students who failed a test or homework and need help to comprehend or understand what they got wrong. If I was to go again, hopefully it would help me lessen the difficulty of the assignment and make it much easier for me the next time, but I highly doubt that it would occur.

English 111 Movie Review (Takers)

Jabari Stafford

English 111

Professor Stephen Brandon

9/6/12

Takers Review (The Movie)

There are a number of interesting movies that have been displayed the past years. In my opinion, the most captivating and recent movie was “Takers.” It was an extremely action packed movie. It was released in theatres August twenty-seventh, two-thousand ten. Every scene would catch the viewer’s attention. One of the actors I noticed in the movie was T.I. There were also many other great talented actors, such as Idris Elba, Shamar Moore, and Paul Walker. This movie really provides an intense sequence of events that keeps viewers at the edge of their seat.

This movie features a group of bank robbers who are included in many extraordinary robberies. They come together for one last crime. But they are challenged by the authorities who try to prevent their misconduct, an instead of the fortune, they find devastating events. The action in this movie was phenomenal. One of the scenes I remember included the bank robbers and a group of Russian guys they had a conflict with. The scene resulted in a shootout between the two groups, and the majority of the Russian gang faced death due to the gunshots. One of the bank robbers also was killed, this was an extremely suspenseful scene in the film, because the death of AJ, the bank robber was completely unexpected because it was quite early in the movie.