Just Released, Foreign Policy Aficionado

Grammar

Descriptive verbs, I have a tendency to incorporate a lot of to be verbs in my writing. In order to eliminate excess to be verbs you can replace them with descriptive verbs. Descriptive verbs can be can be found by expanding ones vocabulary, and using more wordage in your writing. to view lists of descriptive verbs click HERE

America the beautiful, Dinesh D'Souza

This essay comparing Islamic vs American ideals was very intriguing to read. In fact, I can easily say that it was one of my favorite essays all semester. D'Souza does a great job at keeping this essay on point, addressing views, claims, touching on principles and following all of them through to their conclusions. Not to mention the fact that he does get lost in bias tangents, or waste time on irrelevant material. 

He clearly portrays that these two different ideologies are not merely fighting for superiority, they are fighting for survival. Both of them have respectable values, however they seriously threaten each other. D'S

ouza also does a fantastic job of breaking down each of these complex ideologies in simpler terms. Addressing what they're based on, what they're fighting for and the different fundamentals that are involved. One interesting line for me was addressing Americans that go abroad often ret

urn home with a deep appreciation of this country and its system. I spent about ten days in China in the summer of 2007, and u

pon returning home I felt I could kiss the ground I was so happy to be back and grateful for the country I live in. 

Interestingly enough in this essay, after the breaking down the complexities of both ideologies within this paper, their is a big underlining position that was failed to mention, which is the authors clear embrace of the ide

a of

 Americanizing the world for its own betterment. This view favors protecting Americas security in the name of national interest. The author shows us how we can win in liberating the islamic ideology to be more compatible with wes

tern ideology, but is force-feeding freedom really our responsibility? Is it our right to change another civilization because we see how to make it more compatible with our own, and comfort ourselves that they will be happier, or is that ju

st what we need to tell ourselves to justify our

 actions in protecting our freedom?

Dr. Charles Moseley. An Enduring Academic Legacy or Minding and Closing the Gap

I went to the extra Credit lecture last night at the tabernacle building, which was presented by Dr. Charles Moseley from Cambridge University in Great Britain. The lecture was titled An Enduring Academic Legacy: or Minding and Closing the Gap. This was a lecture on humanities and actually turned out to be very intriguing. 

The night started out with introductions and music from a couple of talented and renowned musicians playing some Beethoven and Horshack on the violin and piano, which was unexpected and jolly good. They also played a slideshow of DSC Professors' trips to Cambridge University giving humanities lectures. The pictures of the Cambridge campus looked like a mix of a garden and a library, they were very beautiful and fun to see the various culture. 

Dr. Moseley's lecture also shared some fun culture in his proper pronunciation and fun english terms like that'l be lovely, jolly good and thats grand. His talk was quite witty and humorous keeping the audience engaged. The beginning of his lecture seemed like more of a introduction to Cambridge, but as it continued it discussed the links between colleges, subjects and institutions impressing the idea that there is much we can learn from each other, and to continue to try for some kindness and understanding. His lecture conveyed personal stories, interesting quotes and pieces of history. He also demonstrated good points like, we all have things to say, and we should all listen, because both sides can benefit from each other and will continue to need each other. It was a fascinating lecture that I really enjoyed.

Grammar note, Defining the passive voice.

 In many cases you can spot the passive voice in a sentence when you see a form of a "to be" verb (is, are, am , was, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, being) followed by a past participle "ed". While the passive voice is not a grammar error, it often makes a sentence confusing. This was very helpful for me if you would like to see more on this click HERE

Rhetorical Modes

                  I have chosen to write my essay in Comparison/Contrast mode. However, for my post I found the Extended Definition writing mode, and Description mode particularly interesting.

                  Extended definition, is defining something similar to a dictionary. In fact you'll start out writing three sentences as if it were a dictionary definition. 

                 (1) First you'll state and define your term. 

                 (2) Second you need to classify the group of people, things or events it belongs too. 

                 (3) Finally you pair it with a brief description that summarizes the term. 

 Following these three sentences you will continue to define what it is your writing about. This mode of writing is one of the more difficult to use, but once you've got it down it can significantly help you to be able to write long papers, or elaborate on things you've written.

                 Description mode is similar to extended definition in the sense that its one of the more difficult modes to learn, but very beneficial to your writing once you have the hang of it. Description means illustrative detail. Description mode basically describes a person, object or circumstances in illustrative detail like painting a picture or describing a scene to someone. There are a few tools you can use to aid you in description mode, for instance describing a room starting from one point moving around the room until you've come back to that point. Another is describing a person from top to bottom. More techniques include using the reporters five W questions, who, what, when, why, where, & how, or describing action like a movie or moving picture.  all of these tools can help one to illustrate in detail what it is they want to describe. These tools applied with a basic essay structure will give a descriptive essay. 

For more tips on these two rhetorical modes and more click here

50 Questions of the founders foreign policy vs our current foreign policy

1 How does the founders foreign policy result in a strong healthy nation?

2 Is the American nation a positive example for the world?

3 Does our nation fulfill its purpose laid out by our founders?

4 What is the importance of maintaining good relations for commercial trading?

5 Do foreign banks invested in America sway our position with other nations?

6 Who had a better approach to maintain peaceful relations world wide, our founders or our current administration?

7 Did our founders remain consistent with the foreign policy they established?

8 Does Americas free-trade agreement make our country wealthier or does it weaken our nation?

9 How does national debt effect our foreign policy?

10 Are there or have there been other downsides to Americas free-trade agreement?

11 Is policing or neutrality a more peaceful position?

12 Is it Americas responsibility to make more of an international approach given it's wealth and military position?

13 Does America try to solve world hunger and poverty, or does it create it?

14 Are the American people aware of the extent of our nations involvement globally?

15 Should America only get involved in war that threatens America?

16 Are there any other grounds on which America should go to war/

17 At what point did our nations foreign policy change from the original?

18 Who's interests does America have in mind when we invade other country's?

19 What are the pro's and con's of managing the worlds politics?

20 Is America over stepping its bounds with world politics?

21 Is there anything that justifies our nation to do so?

22 Which system has influenced the world more, capitalism or communism?

23 Does America portray capitalism in a positive light?

24 Does our nation emanate peace?

25 Does the existence of nuclear weapons change the possibilities of Americas foreign policy options?

26 How did the founding fathers layout their foreign policy?

27 Which foreign policy benefited the U.S. more, the current or the original?

28 What were the pro's and con's of the original policy?

29 What are the pro's and con's of the existing foreign policy?

30 Which policy allowed America to gain more wealth?

31 How have our relationships changed with other countries since our policies have changed?

32 How do other nations view America?

33 Why did we change our foreign policy from the original?

34 Has our current foreign policy made America more of a target for attacks from other nations?

35 Is preemptive war the most peaceful solution with other counties?

36 What is our goal with our foreign policy?

37 Are we out for world peace or U.S. world domination?

38 How does our foreign policy step on the toes of other nations?

39 Does our nation recognize and respect other nations cultural and religious differences?

40 Has our free-trade agreement turned the tables and passed our wealth to china and opec?

41 At what point does our nation intervene with the bullying of smaller helpless nations?

42 At what point does America declare war on other nations?

43 Is America bias with its dealing with other nations?

44 How does that effect our relations globally?

45 Could America maintain good commercial relations while staying out of wars?

46 Do the U.S. people support our actions abroad, as with war ect.?

47 Should our country share some responsibility in provoking an attack?

48 How does America deal with communism?

49 Does our nation respect other nations rights and beliefs?

50 What could America do to better relations with other nations without appearing weak, or reneging its position?

The Internationale By Eugene Pottier

The International

Arise ye workers from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, ariseWe'll change henceforth the old tradition
And spurn the dust to win the prize.

Refrain: 

So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Inte

rnationale unites the human race.

No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.
No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty
And give to all a happier lot. 

Each at the forge must do their duty 

And we'll strike while the iron is hot.

Mixed Constructions/ Grammar

Grammar is always a great time right? This is a little out of the box, mixed constructions. Mixed constructions occur when a writer begins a sentence with one construction and, without realizing it, finishes with another. To see some examples of this look here: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/grammar/course/sentence/2_6e.htm I fall prey to this when I'm not dilligent enough, if you do too, I hope this helps.

Vicarious Living

Framing Class, By Diana Kendall
This paper places strong emphasis on the media's destructive influence on society by distorting the lines of class and race within it. The media has a profound effect on what we see, read and hear and uses that to distort our perception of society. The author essentially exposes the medias power to socially destruct reality.
This paper is based on a very ethical appeal discussing the blurred separation of upper class
vs middle to lower class and race or ethenticity. the author supports her argument with numerous reports, statistics, and sources appealing to peoples logic, but driving at very ethical issues. exposing that people have become victims of consumerism driven by super media industries that view the public as a payday and bombard them with advertisements and make them desire things they don't need.
This paper is very effective covering all ends of the issue, and supporting it with sources. The author does a terrific job exposing this consumer disease with very influential rhetoric.

Serving in Florida by: Barbra Ehrenreich

Barbra Ehrenreich writes a very descriptive personal narrative with deep insight into the low wage American workplace. Based on an experiment by the author, who is exploring the low wage working place by waiting tables at a commercial chain res truant and housecleaning at a nearby hotel. The author gets more than she can handle trying to keep up with two jobs and and the amounting bills that she's trying to meet. From her sceptical tone throughout her experiment, she seems as if she's trying to expose the destitute and impracticability of the low wage lifestyle.
The authors rhetoric is very descriptive, beginning her paper outlining a variety of disgusting foods, and talking about digestive details of fried foods going on and on sharing what she must have felt walking into this atmosphere. The focus throughout this paper is very negative, you can tell the author is very disgusted by every thing she's experiencing and wants her readers to feel how despicable this world is. The way she describes her job it seems like slavery not a healthy respectable working atmosphere, from the attitude of her boss to the ungrateful customers she's serving who don't pay her any respect. There's no time to break for lunch or go to the bathroom, as the physical demands of the job bring out pains in her body to which she cannot address.
The authors experience is very effective, providing a first hand account of this minimum wage world and illustrating how unjust and overwhelming it can be. It's is also clear that this is exactly what the author wanted to expose, her entire focus is on the ugly side of this life style, directing attention on how difficult it is, how ugly, how detrimental it is to the people and to our society.

Apostrophe's with possessive nouns and pronouns.

Every now and then I have a tendency to misplace or fail to place an apostrophe. The following rule helps clarify any doubts of distinguishing between possessive nouns and plural nouns. Possessive nouns and pronouns demonstrate ownership or some similar relationship over something else. Plural nouns indicate more than one person, place or thing. You can view the above rule here: http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules/Possessive-Nouns.html

Modifiers, my favorite :)

Modifiers really help add description to writing and provide visuals to the reader. A modifier is a word, a phrase, or a clause that function's as an adjective or adverb that adds information and detail about a noun, a verb, or another word. Of course you don't have to take my word for it, click on this site to see for yourself. Here, http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/modifier.htm

The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope of Dialogue.

Tannens, Roots of debate in Education is focused on the educational system, and weather or not it aspires to assist students in obtaining all they can from their time in school, and weather it uses the best methods for all its students to learn to their full potential.

My first impression of this essay was that the whole paper was going to focus on the school system providing advantages to men over women. However, as I continued through the paper I found that its larger scope was really addressing weather or not the school system serves all of their students equally and to the highest extent of their potential using the best most effective ways to teach students so that they can gain all they can out of their lesson. 

I really thought this paper was well done, even if I don't share the authors every point of view. I think she did a great job at writing a well proportioned paper. She addresses her readers concerns, and gains more of her readers respect. She also follows up on the concerns she addressed and refutes them, making her paper much more persuasive rather than just going for controversy and a reaction. The author is the communicator in this paper, and she appeals to an audience of primarily women and students, administrators, and the general public. She uses large quantities of ethos, pathos, and logos appeal.

In fact her entire paper is based on ethos appeal. questioning the ethics of the educational system, and the system surrounding it. She presses most all her points using logos, appealing to the logic of her readers, supplying them with sources from current scholars, philosophy, history from various time periods, and different cultures. She continues to appeal to logic, and she involves some pathos appeal using sources of psychology, sociology, relating a lot of her material to women, and equal opportunity. The author digs into scholastic debating, peer reviews involving excessive criticism, and public humiliation, demonstrating how people are torn apart though these methods rather than inspiring or exploring lessons deeper, making a strong emotional appeal to her audience. Well written and very persuasive paper, Deborah Tannen relates to her readers, and provides informative rhetoric delivering a influential paper.

Comma splice

Commas are used in so many different ways throughout writing, I've found that I need all the tips I can pick up with them. So the rule states, "A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses (clauses that could be sentences on their own) are jammed together with a comma". So how can you fix the sentence? You must do one of two things: either separate the clauses completely into two sentences or join the sides together with an appropriate connector, you can use a semicolon or a word as a connector. You can view more help on this herehttp://homeworktips.about.com/od/improvingyourgrammar/a/commasplice.htm

Against School, Gato

John Taylor Gato, after writing best selling books, and highly awarded as an educator writes this piece on the so called real purpose of public schools. 

As an experienced educator, Gato has written various books delivering the message that public schools have alterior motives besides their elected mission statement. Stating that both children and teachers are bored with the curriculum, and are failing to engage children's and young adults creativity. Creating a system where everyone learns to just follow directions. Relating public schools as prisons for youth.

While Mr. Gato is obviously an award winning teacher in the state of New York, He seems to have had some trouble with his administrators. Who tried to get him not only fired, but also have his license to teach, taken away as well. Obviously Mr. Gato doesn't see eye to eye with administration and their system, and may result in some bias within his paper and books. Listening to the lectures and notions of other anti-public school advocates as well. However, his points have strong merit, and set forth a good argument.

While up front public schools preach a mission statement that their overall purpose is to create good people, make good citizens, and make each person his or her personal best. Yet Gato claims that public schools are really interested in mediocracy and have a much deeper underlying purpose, and their interests is that of a complex management of economic and political proportions to really create harmless voters and mindless consumers. In order to test Gato's theory when we look at general public which do we see? I have to agree with Gato to the extent that their is a lot of discrimination in what is published and fed through our text books, not to mention Government in control of what the nation is taught also controls the next generation of voters, and outline the type of citizens that they desire.

I Just Wanna Be Average, Rose.

I just wanna be average, is a narrative, In which the author incorporates his high school experience to demonstrate high schools effectiveness with struggling students.

In this paper, the author Mike Rose relates his experience through high school, to demonstrate points in regard to high schools effectiveness. Using his characters to paint a picture of the type of atmosphere he experienced throughout high school, and the type of student he was. He makes strong points of his teachers lack of effort or interest within his troubled youth classes, and how they are designed to "occupy or train"  the students to function as desired within society and go nowhere jobs. As he and most class-mates coasted through courses earning C's and F's with out taking much interest. They placed more effort into their image to not care about the system or themselves.

However, he show's that despite appearances they are still quite capable of learning, if only engaged with material they can relate to and captivate their interest. In fact the underlying point it seems he is trying to make, is that the school, or the system has stacked the deck against him in the first place. Developing them for less glamourous roles throughout society.

Its through a teacher who is quite passionate, that Mike Rose finds a renewed interest in himself and his future. A well educated teacher who may not look the part, but has captivated his students with his passion to help them achieve the most out of their education and their time spent at school to achieve more through out this life. Which ultimately asks the question, what is our public schools real purpose if not to focus all there resources to educate americas youth to their full potential?

Idiot Nation

                                  Idiot Nation, By Michael Moore.

This essay was painful to read! I started the essay with an open mind, but the first four pages were enough to get under my skin. I was open to the idea being presented, which was that our nation by majority is illiterate. However, this essay wasn't an argument. It was more like, listening to a teenager go off for eighteen pages about how much smarter he is than the rest of the nation--without having earned a college degree--and then go on complaining about the educational system, and politics, anything he could find to complain about. Furthermore, he didn't offer any solutions, or locate the the real source of the so called problem. Instead he offers advice on how to undermine authorities, or how to be as disruptive as possible in in school, as if that will help to raise the average IQ rating. The entire essay is like he wants to sit on a bench complaining about anything that he comes in contact with, and then expect the people around him to fix things to his satisfaction just because he says there wrong. I think this essay says more about Michael Moore than the so called purpose of the essay, which was the literacy of our nation.

Throughout the majority of the essay Mr. Moore fails to offer any valuable sources to back up his claims, at one point he supports his study by saying, "how do I know this? Because I read it thats how". Which left me asking, read it where? The enquire? or wikepedia? This essay has logical fallacy written all over it! Starting off strongly with hasty generalization, sarcasm, playing on emotions of his readers, and on people's standard of no tolerance of racism, or sexism.

Eventually this essay does touch on some viable argument, which had to do with corporations marketing within our schools nation wide. There is also an underlying point about questioning information we're given, and thinking for ourselves. However, he fails to back up much of this with good sources. It leaves me asking what are his facts based on? Where did this information come from? Its difficult to have any respect for the essay when its all unsubstantiated, and based on simply Michael Moore's opinions, and very limited scope of things. People gain their education based on information that their interested in, and is pertinent to their survival. We don't all have to have Michael Moore's standard of literacy in order to be intelligent.

The semicolon

Use a semicolon in place of a period to separate two sentences where the conjunction has been left out. View rule here, http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/semicolons.asp

Looking for work

This is an essay about a nine year old boy who lives in a poor area of fresno. Influenced by television he spends his leisure time outside to earn money, in an attempt to have class and fit in with the nineteen fifties ideal of what a family should be.

As this author paints the picture of his youth, he illustrates the status of his family and neighboring families. Influenced by TV he thinks he their family were to behave more like the family he sees on television they might be accepted by the white community. In addition he realizes that wealth is an important fact to this picture and immediately sets out to gain wealth and achieve his vision. Though he may not have luxuries like they do on TV, he is really quite happy and has the time of his life despite not having the nineteen fifties model family.

This author likes to use casual terms like nicknames, and leave a carrot out there for the reader while he switches directions and comes back to it. He also used a framing technique which was also quite intriguing. 

The boy is captivated by the TV images and what they portray. Seeing some value for himself--which is wanting to be embraced by the white community. He sets out to achieve his ends of obtaining this ideal. While he thinks he wants this to feel good, the author shows you that this boy already has the time of his life. He's free to play outside, engages with friends and siblings, and is able to pursue his idea of happiness each day. The author does illustrate his motive's for the appeal of such a happy family image, where the children aren't beaten, or wanting for anything, they have air conditioning and they aren't sneered at. While his siblings don't feel it would make any difference, he pushes on living his dream while working toward it.

foreign affairs political comic

Punctuation rule on dashes

Dashes--use a pair of dashes, not just one, to mark the beginning and end of a word group that needs emphasis. An em dash is the width of an m. Use an m dash sparingly in formal writing. In informal writing, em dashes may replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an interruption or an abrupt chance of thought. You can find this here http://www.grammarbook.com/puncuation/dashes.asp

Foreign affairs political comic

Foreign trade political comic

What we really miss about the 1950's

Literally the author is evaluating how people view the nineteen fifties. When the man was the bread winner, the mom was the home maker, and the children attended high school with bright future's ahead. The author illustrates that while some of this is true, when compared with the surrounding era's, much of it was just an ideal spoon fed the the american people through TV, radio, and government pamphlets. While this era had a lot of appeal, given to be seemingly safer and a more opportune time, it was also unbalanced to the opposite of our current era. 

Analytically the author uses a large amount of research in the form of studies and statistics, to compare our era's, and reveal the contrast of the fifties to now, and to help illustrate perspective.

I feel that while the author demonstrates the appeal of the fifties, she is very clear to point out the flaws of the era. While the time may have pushed ideals as listed above, people were trying to live up to them, but the portrayal was more myth than reality. The people were also ignorant of crime rates dull to sexism, and racism. The ideal might be nice, but it's not realistic.

Comas after introductory words or phrase's.

There are a few errors I tend to make with commas. I thought I would brake them down and work on one rule then the other. This week I have been working on commas after introductory word, phrases, or clause. The rule state's to use a comma to separate the introductory dependent clause from the main clause. The introductory dependent clause sets the stage for the main clause and requires a comma to separate them. For more help go to this web site found Here http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_commaint.html Im working on highlighting the word here for the link.

What it means to me, to be an american.

Being an American, is to be a part of the greatest country in the world. We live in a great country. A country that allows the opportunity for us to have rich, comfortable lifestyles. We have the ability to say, think, and express ourselves however we wish. We can criticize our leaders or voice our different ideals. 

I have a friend from Iraq who was imprisoned for spitting on a poster of Sudam Hussien. The act was witnessed by two police officers who arrested him and he was sentenced to fifteen years. This was during the gulf war, and six months into his sentence the prison was bombed by U.S. forces. He was released from custody and after a lengthy process he gained American citizenship. He has lived here since, and always expresses gratitude for the freedom he's gained. 

In our country we have a voice, and the opportunity to influence our nation to be a country we can be proud of. It is our responsibility to take part in our country and protect our rights for ourselves and for those incapable of protecting themselves, whether from other dictators, or our own Government and lawmakers. Our country may not be perfect, but we can help it to become so and I feel that makes us a great nation.

Summarizing the Introduction of ReReading America.

We started by reading the introduction to ReReading America. Which begins by addressing the challenges college students face when beginning college. It discusses thinking critically, cultural myths in america, and the books intent to bring these into discussion. It offers insight and tips of assessing dialogue, reading actively, pre reading, pre writing, taking notes and viewing visual images critically.