Arguments of Definition

  In chapter 9, we are talking about the different meanings, or interpretations of an argument. Everyone has their own interpretation of an argument, whether it is about politic, gender issue, or just daily matters. As the very first topic of patriotism in this chapter, the author is showing many ways that patriotism can be expressed depending on people's ideologies. Backing up the argument has been made, the chapter showed different pictures defined patriotism. The one with Uncle Sam can be interpreted as a command, like, as patriotic citizen, you have to be obedient to the government. As an opposed, the one with a smiling old lady shows a more volunteering attitude to the mean of patriotism. Nevertheless, the interpretations of each whether visual, or non-visual arguments are depended on the level of education, background, political status, and social influence of one who interpreted them. For example, in United States, when a person reaches the age of 18, he/she is considered an adult and basically has full responsibility for his/herself under most circumstances. That individual is encouraged to move out of the parents' house, find a job, and take care of themselves. However, in the Oriental culture like Vietnam, China, or Korean, even though one is past the age of 18, they still have to obey their parents, and most of the elders. Along with that, the parents still want to take care of their child as long as possible. My brother, who is 28, married, and also had a kid, my parents are still letting him stay in their house; in some occasions, my dad even beats him for making poor choices like the "old days".

Hidden Layers

   Everyday we make arguments with ourself in most of the actions that we do. In Chapter 5, the author is talking about the hidden layers within our thoughts and speeches; these are the assumptions that our self consciousness is making in order to verify, and make ourself feel secured about the situation. I did not really think about these hidden assumptions of my thinking before reading this article. As every morning I wake up, I tell myself to brush my teeth, wash my face, take a quick shower before going to class, not just because I need to do them. I was making an assumption that I would look bad, and smell to other people if I did not do those basics in the morning.

In writing, making assumptions creates an environment for the readers to debate, which is a good thing, because writing a blog like this is all about making our arguments and having other people to read and comment about their own idea/point of view. Another thing in the article that I want to talk about are the underlying values of things that politicians, and government's people say everyday. They often disguise the meaning of their speech by rewording the important words in their messages. People are not going to say that they either support the "Anti-Abortion" or "In favor of lawful Abortion", due to the sensitivity of the given phases. "Pro-life" and "Pro-choice" give the audience the desired effects that most of the politicians want.

Visual Argument

    Chapter 14 shows us how powerful of an impact that all current aired advertisements have on people. The visual arguments in those advertisements often appeal to logos (Logical), pathos (Emotional), ethos (Credibility), or sometimes more than one of the three. The goal of an visual argument is to persuade the audiences that its ideas, and arguments are valid, or at least catchy to the people that are watching. To me, the most effective rhetoric out of the three is logos. Most of the time, people make poor decision due to their emotion as more people give more money to wildlife organization to keep the panda from being extinct than organizations that create jobs for the people with disabilities, which make completely no sense  to me. And the credibility of one celebrity would not make an argument valid; for example, a weight loss pill being advertised from a fitness model does not make you to look like them. What I look for in an visual argument is its sense of logic. Does the thing being argued make sense to you? 

Some of the most effective visual arguments that I have come across are the ones that have back-up statistics and logical arguments. In this case, pandas were sure used to be on the verge of extinction. But with the tremendous effort of the Chinese scientists and environmentalists, they are able to reproduce in control environment. As opposed to thousands of species of life forms living in the ocean, they are being overfished and wiped out everyday by humans. The point of this argumentative image is to tell the world that we should spread out the fund and take care of other wildlife species, not just any particular animal. My writing is going to be leaning toward the impact of human on different species on earth, how we should be taking care of planet earth, as well as the environment and its life forms.

This is Dang!

  Hey guys! For any of you that was not in Monica's ENG 101 from last semester, my name is Dang. I was born in Vietnam, but went to high school in Fairfax, Virginia. Living in Virginia is quite nice. You get to fully experience the beauty of all four seasons, especially the fall, when all the maple trees start changing color of their leaves. But it gets annoying as the winter comes, because of all the snow and stuff. Nevertheless, my uncle enjoys living in the sort of relaxing slow-paced lifestyle of Virginia. Arizona has a much similar weather to where I lived in Vietnam. However, Orange Country in California is my ideal place to live. The weather is warm and nice all year long. The beaches are close by. And the people are hyperactive. Vietnam is also known for having beautiful beaches; so if you love the sun and the beach, you will love Vietnam. As you guys all know, this is our first assignment in this class. I somehow feel like I should do a good job on it, but I just don't really know what else to write about. I like how this class works already, because I used to blog on Yahoo!360. But then they chose to close it for some reasons. Yahoo!360 had been there for quite a long time, and its interface was much cooler than the one we are using right now. I don't know about the US; but in Vietnam, Yahoo!360 was the thing to have in the years of 2004 to 2007. People put efforts and money in designing stuff on it, so the add-ons are much better than what we have on Blogger. I think it is because the majority of people right now is using Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the newly developed Google +. But as time goes by, people will develop more innovative ways to connect and share informations. Then, things like Facebook, Twitter that people are crazy about will become the past, like Yahoo!360 and MySpace.