I Want to be Drunk by 11 AM

Since when is it socially acceptable to get drunk on national television? I suppose in New York it's no big deal. Why not have a morning martini to calm your nerves before appearing on television?

Recently, I have picked up the hobby with a few friends of watching the Today show with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. It airs every weekday at 10 am, and lasts for an hour. The ladies report on social issues, new products, and fashion. They give advice and opinion.

When I first watched the show, I caught the end of it and noticed how much fun the ladies were having. When I went back and watched the show from the beginning, I observed how gradually relaxed Hoda and Kathie became as the show continued. With one closer look, I noticed the tall fruity drinks set to each lady’s side. Whoever organized the segments within the show, did so wisely. By the end of the hour, the ladies close the show and sober up with a cooking session.

My friend Elena and I are determined to do this one day. She said, “If I could report the news, get drunk, and look good while doing it, of course I would.” Who wouldn’t? Hoda and Kathie are probably the only two women in the world to wake up for their job and be fortunate enough to get a nice buzz and a decent paycheck. I have never been more jealous in my life.

Being Your Own Interior Designer with Writing

Chapter eight of Envision lectures on presenting arguments through a variety of designs. The levels of decorum presented at the beginning of the chapter gives the reader a better understanding of the argumentative levels of a written or visual piece.
Grand style, the first and most sophisticated style of decorum, uses advanced language and many rhetorical devices to move an audience. Many grand style written pieces can be found in scholarly journals. The second level of decorum is appropriately considered middle style.
Middle style is a little more laid back. It includes using some formal language and arguing at a comfortable pace. Middle style written or visual pieces can be found in newspapers.
The last style of decorum is plain style. Plain style doesn't use formal language and focuses more on simplicity and straightforwardness. It uses consequences or conclusions rather than detail.
The three styles of decorum are used depending on the formal and rhetorical needs of the audience. Chapter eight continues on to explain which levels of decorum are used in written and visual pieces. From academic writings to multimedia montages, examples and "how to's" are provided on the three levels of decorum.

Bob Dotson: Journalism Extraordinaire?

On Tuesday, November 1st, Pruis Hall filled with people intrigued to hear what renowned journalist, Bob Dotson had to say. Dotson spoke for a little under ninety minutes, until opening the field for question.
Honestly, I was quite disappointed in the speaker. Dotson started his speech off with a chimpanzee story that was supposed to be humorous, but only seemed to be humorous to the people in the first three rows of the auditorium. Bob's projection was horrible. He was difficult to hear and understand. The bits and pieces I could obtain from Bob's stories weren't amusing either. He would tell a story about someone he interviewed and would get too caught up in the "he said, then I said" statements. It started to get confusing, and it made me curious as to how he acquired an honorable journalism label.
Dotson may have a good reputation and a great career, but he is not the greatest public speaker. He struggled in keeping the audiences attention, often bragged about his career, and told his stories in a monotone, unorganized manner. For those reasons, I left the event early.

Remember That Time I Already Learned This?

I do. Chapter seven of Envision covered avoiding plagiarism and documenting sources. At this point, I'd like to mention the huge appreciation I have for my high school honors English teacher, Mr. Jones. Because of his advanced instruction, I feel like the smartest kid in my college English class.

I learned all this plagiarizing and documenting nonsense my freshman year of high school. Give properly formatted credit where credit is due. Simple enough. So, did I read the chapter of Envision? Hell, no. I skimmed it. I read through the headings and didn't come upon anything new. Mr. Jones had the kids of my class doing lengthy research papers in proper MLA format all four years of school. He was so precise in grading that points were taken off if the margins were slightly off. He would constantly stress how difficult college English courses are and how the class needs to be prepared for them. He had some good jokes, but that was probably his greatest. I was fairly intimidated.

Now I'm in that "difficult" class, and I laugh at the thought of it. I suppose that's what Mr. Jones's was going for. Thanks, man.

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words and Worthless Planning

Envision Chapter 4

Journal 4

The cliché, “Pictures are worth a thousand words,” doesn’t even begin to scratch the service of analyzing rhetorically. Chapter four of Envision focuses on planning and proposing research arguments. First, the chapter focuses on asking research questions.

After reading the first few pages of the chapter I realized, pictures aren’t worth a thousand words. They’re worth a thousand questions! We so often look at pictures and posters and sub-consciously answer many rhetorical questions by just the first glance.

The rest of the chapter talks about planning writing through clustering and freewriting, which, to me, is a big waste of time. I am the kind of person who is all about scheduling and punctuality. I like to have things planned ahead of time and know what to expect. There is only one thing I do not plan, and that is my writing. If I spend all my time making webs and clustering facts about a topic, then I lose the enthusiasm and the emotion I feel for the topic. I like to think up phrases that introduce the topic and let the ideas flow from there. Sure, it involves quite a bit of adjusting, but I never lose my emotion toward the assignment. I never liked all the technical “how to’s” of planning writing. Planning writing should be done by one’s own means, not by some specified guidelines.

"We Were Po'"

Journal 3

Ball State University was graced with the presence of Jeannette Walls this Thursday night. Although, Walls made it feel as if she was the one being blessed with an auditorium filled with freshman and faculty. Walls, the writer of the best-selling memoir, The Glass Castle, opened her lecture with an immediate statement about how great it felt to be wanted and welcomed at a university lecture hall.

My first impression of Walls as she started to speak was that she is the most humble lady in the world. Walls was quick to mention her appreciation for being at Ball State, but unlike most speakers, she stressed how grateful she was for an audience that wanted to hear what a weird lady like herself had to say.

Walls, fully aware that a majority of the audience consisted of freshman, used informal language like “knucklehead” and “S.O.B.” to appeal to the audience. Her hand gestures and enthusiasm in storytelling kept even the uneager students attentive.

Jeannette spoke of life lessons she learned and the stories in which she learned them from. First, Walls took a humorous approach to her life of poverty by saying, “We weren’t poor. We were po’. We couldn’t afford the rest of the word.” After a good laugh from the audience, she continued to speak of isolating shame and facing one’s fears.

Walls never once provoked sympathy from the audience; in fact, she embraced her stories of poverty with optimism. She kept a smile on her face the entire time and spoke approvingly of her underprivileged lifestyle. In her closing statement Walls said, “Embrace your stories, face your demons, and build your own glass castles.” She walked off stage not anticipating a standing ovation. She got one anyway.

Maybe I Should Start Drinking Coffee

Class Observation

Thursday, September 15th

Journal 3

Today was my last day for classes. I am one of few, extremely fortunate freshman who does not have class on Fridays. English was my last class today, and I honestly considered ditching class, but then realized it was my turn to take class observation notes.

I walk into class, sit down, open my laptop, and sigh heavily. For homework, each student was supposed to gather some kind of persuasive writing piece to rhetorically analyze. I had chosen an article written on a magazine website debating whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport. Though it’s not a huge controversial topic, like slavery or women’s rights, it is something I know a lot about. I figured it would be best to analyze something I know a lot about, because I’m going to have enough trouble analyzing anyway.

Ms. Evans, my English teacher, walks around the room and looks at each person’s persuasive piece choice. She nods her head in approval at mine and a few others and then goes on to lecture for about fifteen minutes about choosing articles from “junk” sites. I don’t think a majority of the students were listening, because it seemed as though most of them were scrambling to Google an article for approval.

While all this commotion is going on, I sat at my computer and Facebook instant messaged a few people. Wesley sits across from me and continued at the attempt to engage me in conversation, but I wasn’t having it. It had been a long day, and I just wanted to get out of there.

Today, Ms. Evans showed us all a text from some kind of Mythological debate. Apparently, this fella, Gorgias wrote a persuasive piece denying all possible guilt toward some Helen lady. I didn’t pay interest to the base story, but I should have, because I found myself interested in all of Gorgias’ arguments. Ms.Evans divided the class into groups and gave each group a question to discuss. After taking way too long for discussion, every group started to stray from topic. I didn’t say much, and I wasn’t going to. I just wanted to clock to run out.

Of course all great things come to an end, and eventually class was over. Ms. Evans mentioned something about checking out a website and finishing first drafts, but I was already halfway out the door and on the high road to home.

Envision Reading Chapter 1

Becca Wolfley

Journal 2

September 10, 2011

Evans

I didn’t know cartoons took much thought. I mean, the writer finds a way to tell a joke through cute characters, and that was it. I always enjoyed reading the comics in the newspaper. There was The Peanuts, and Dennis the Menace, and that Cathy lady too. I didn’t like her much.

Not until last year did I discover a different kind of cartoon. My government and economics teacher introduced me to political cartoons. I had seen them before, but couldn’t make much sense of the joke by the dialogue being said, so I never wasted time with them. They seemed more appealing to adults anyhow.

After reading chapter one of Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments, I can now look at political cartoons and figure out “what the eff” is going on. The chapter introduces rhetoric in writing by using political cartoons as an example. For those like myself who are just now grasping the concept of rhetoric, the chapter provides quite a bit of cartoons and analysis on them. One in particular that caught my attention involved two friends on a trip to the Apple store. Page twelve depicts a comic strip of two kids deemed not “hip” enough to be in the Apple store. The kids were kicked out into the rain, wearing disappointed faces. They were also accompanied by the Windows logo on a pole in the background. The book continues to analyze the cartoon, and I could grasp everything that was said. Because the cartoon referred to something I could actually relate to, it was fairly easy to understand what was being said.

Once I finished the chapter, I had the urge to pick up a newspaper and find those political cartoons that used to confuse and bore me. I didn’t think this whole rhetoric learning process would be interesting. It seemed more like a hassle, but now it’s more like finding treasure. I want to figure out why the creator of that poster on the wall designed it the way he did, or why that person insisted on spray-painting an offensive message on a street sign. Lately, I have been naturally pondering everything. It’s kind of funJ

I'm Not Sure What You're Saying, Lady, But I'm Working On It

Rebecca Wolfley

English 103

Journal 1

Evans

I’m Not Sure What You’re Saying, Lady, But I’m Working On It

“Come in, It’s like church, there’s a lot of seats in the front, and like church, we’re glad you’re here.”

Cheryl Glenn spoke these words as she witnessed skeptical undergraduates debate whether or not arriving late to her lecture was a good idea. Glenn didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seemed happy to know that students were showing up to her lecture as opposed to the majority of the crowd made up of instructors.

As an undergraduate myself, I didn’t know what to expect from Glenn’s lecture, and for a majority of the time, I had no idea what she was talking about or referencing to. I just started taking a Writing and Rhetoric class three weeks ago, and when my English teacher suggested attending, I figured I might as well go so I could write about it. Walking into the lecture, I didn’t think I would make much sense of anything this lady said. I was still trying to grasp the concept of rhetoric in writing, and now I’m expected to know what feminism is and the relation of the two? I definitely couldn’t process it. What was feminism, again? Is it any different from prejudice? If so, how? I don’t know.

Glenn went on for about forty-five minutes about rhetoric and feminism. I wasn’t sure if she was comparing the two or speaking about rhetoric within feminism and vice versa. One thing Glenn mentioned that did alert me was rhetoric in silence. I understood that.

It all goes with the cliché, “Sometimes saying nothing, is better than saying anything at all.” There is even rhetoric in the silent treatment. When a person gives the silent treatment, it’s an intentional action. She is obviously upset or sad about something and does not want to give attention to the person who caused it. She is saying so much without muttering a word.

So, is this what rhetoric is? I’d like to think so. It’s the easiest way of understanding it. Rhetoric is what ideas and opinions are persuaded through the images and words we create, right? I think I got it.

Glenn’s lecture didn’t teach me much about feminism or the rhetoric within it or outside of it or whatever. I wasn’t catching on. Although, she did open my eyes to what rhetoric was. Now, maybe I’ll understand what this textbook is saying.