Engl 505

The Operator's Manual

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:24:00 +0000

While reading this article I came to the conclusion that I am guilty of doing such things as stated in this article. At times I thought I had enough commonsense to operate or use something that I've never used before, but After fumbling around and almost killing myself I would read the manual. This is where I became confused because the instructions were vague and now I really had no idea what I was doing. I would think that many of us go through this in our lifetime and wonder, who in the hell wrote these instructions?

It seems that bad things happen to good people which this article points out. I know that technology is changing even faster than before, but it doesn't seem like this should be an excuse for bad writing of instructions. One of the things that appalled me even more is that after all of the legal proceedings they are using the same manual for teaching a class on how to use the studgun. It's funny someone pinpointed out the problem, but no one ever went back to fix it?

The Myth

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:42:00 +0000

Well as I sat and read Vatz, I know that everything made sense to me at that time and place. I only come to wonder if everything will make sense when I present the material to the class? We are always surrounded by situations, but it is the rhetor that brings them out in detail. We would really have no concern with these situations, but the rhetor puts emphasis on it or their point of view. The question is, should we always pay attention to these situations I guess only if there is a strong meaning to ones self. There are things that stuck in my mind as I read further into the article, one is how the media lets us look at the news such as "Shark Week" which usually happens right after someone is attacked. This will get the general public in an uproar and scared of sharks, which we don't take into consideration that we would have a better chance at winning the lottery than there is getting attacked by a shark. My favorite was what really got this war started, you remember "Weapons of Mass Destruction" anything to get the public confused. 6 years and nothing found yet!

Kairos

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:44:00 +0000

When I was reading this I was really thinking about what has been talked about in the class in the past few weeks. About how scientists prove something and how others will disprove the others claim. We can also look at how Kairos is translated "the right time" and how it was the right time for DNA. I would guess that many of these "right times" have come and gone with different discovers, but who is to say what is right and what is wrong? When it comes to science I can be a sceptic just because how these scientist can use rhetoric to persuade. I guess that I have to be the judge of that, but with DNA it's hard for me to swallow this claim sometimes. Just look at fingerprinting and how this claim has changed over time. Not everything is what it may seem, but with some fancy wording some can make anyone a believer.

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:48:00 +0000

It's time to put a little post so I can get back into the swing of things. Some of the things that have been bothering me lately is that of my project. I feel that looking at the Haditha massacre (Northern Iraq) and the rhetoric that surrounds it is appalling. But when I go back to all the readings that we are doing within the class we get into depth with rhetoric. I feel myself going back to the simplistic parts of rhetoric such as the cannons of rhetoric pathos, logos, ethos. Just simple things, that if one of these are used right than one (a person) can be able to persuade someone. Such as in the time of war so one can stay alive.

Where I get a little distraught or even confused is rhetoric used within the medical field. When reading "Thucydides and the Plague in Athens" I began to think about the great things that rhetoric could provide, but can also be used as a monster to steer people wrong. I am just pondering on these ideas because one must wonder which is the greater of the two evils.

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:37:00 +0000

While reading chapter 11 about pleasure I would have to say that Aristotle had an outlook at how everything is pleasurable(in the soul if I understood right). No matter what kind of sensible feeling that you would get there is pleasure involved. I look at this most because during battles that there is much pain going on, but in the end pleasure will follow.

I just cannot look at our current situation (financial) and wonder how there would be pleasure? Is it that we may succeed in the end and everything will be better or that we can make it through during a time of struggle. I just have a hard time following how pain will lead to pleasure. Many painful things that are out there will always stay in ones mind. I understand that one has conquered a painful time, but I believe that there will always be some form of pain even if there is pleasure.

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:51:00 +0000

While I am sitting here reading Aristotle I believe more into the different ways of thought. The thought that I am looking at is that of psycology and socialolgy. If you are writing or presenting to someone than you need to know your audience. I know that these different types of discourse (psycology and socialolgy) are fairly new, but one would have to reason that they are quite old. This is because to put rational thought into a presentation you have look at these different factors in order to be persuasive.

I look at this in detail because anyone can just blurt out some words or jot down some words onto paper. If you don't take into account the social or cultural issues you will not persuade your audience. This will lead you nowhere, which brings me back to that anyone can do this, but people that are knowledgeable into what they are presenting will let them succed towards their purpose.

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:19:00 +0000

These articles which we had to read this week were more complex than the ones from last week. One thing kept on going through my mind while reading the articles that came off of e-reserves. It's this technology that we are faced with today and how it changes our ways of gathering knowledge. There are just so many different ways that you can gather information this day and age. I look at this and know more on how I've been left out of the loop. Three years ago was the last time that I had a cell phone, so when I got my new iPhone I was surprised at all the different things that were available to do on it. The newest thing was text-messaging. All of the abbreviations, yea I was confused, but this is a way that technology is changing us. Even school children are using these types of text in their academic papers. With this new technology I believe that rhetoric is not looked at anymore (the meanings of words) or in easier terms our society is dumbing itself down.

Challenger

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:15:00 +0000

The articles about the space shuttle challenger are upsetting to me. I understand that different types of discourse are used between the engineers and the managers, but one would think that these are professionals. They both have vasts amounts of knowledge that should let them communicate better than the way that they did. Their knowledge comes from different backgrounds of academia, but they should know that they are working on a great scale, which should let them be able to communicate with some rational. I could only imagine that if these people were not just trying to cover their asses with different forms of rhetoric, than maybe there might of been a better outcome.

I know while reading these articles I took them slightly personal, because if things like this happened in Iraq there would be a totally different outcome. I dealt with lives in Iraq, just as these people did, but they are looked at differently. In my mind if someone would speak up than maybe things like this would not happen, sorry, or better yet, if you know that there will be repercussions to pay than ones work ethics might change. I didn't care about losing my job while in Iraq, but I still made sure that my Marines were always safe, NO MATTER WHAT! These people should be held to the same scale.

Thoughts about a Project

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:27:00 +0000

While reading these articles I kept on having reoccurring thoughts about the language used pertaining to the space shuttle (or covering of ones ass). I kept on thinking of what I just went through in Iraq as a similar scenario, but I look at where I was stationed in Iraq (Haditha). I've watched how the Haditha massacre has been thrown around the media with no resolve at end, which reminds me on how these articles on the space shuttle situation (O-rings) took place. It's amazing on how so many people can change things around just to keep their job, but not worry about the livelihood of others. I've just bouncing around the idea of the Iraq war and the rhetoric that surrounds it. It might be really nice to see what is going on between rhetoric and war.

Understanding

noreply@blogger.com (shanky) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:06:00 +0000

Well, here I go back into school and the knowledge I am trying to grasp is vague. I don't know if this will make sense to everyone out there, but as I read these articles I understand them but in some form I don't understand them. Rhetoric is a topic that seems to the point with me, but can be a broad topic among other people. This seems as if I am learning this for the first time.

"An Overview of Rhetoric" is something that is more knowledge based (something that I do understand). I follow along with how rhetoric is broken down into different steps. Rhetoric and Persuasion is something that seems true, true that in order for rhetoric to work you must persuade. Ok, persuasion is a powerful tool and without this tool you will not far with a research paper or even as simple as talking to someone.

To let everyone know this is a difficult task to me, with just coming home from Iraq, I guess going from military life back to college is quiet a shock. But I know I will enjoy this blog because throughout the semester I will be able to see how my progress will take shape.

nathan