Campus Issue

Something that I feel USC needs to change is the attendance policy. Before there used to be no rules regarding class attendance, but now students can be bumped down letter grades or fail a class for poor attendance. I am not saying that students should not attend class, however if they are able to pass the classes without going to them than why should they have to go? Students at this age should have the maturity to make their own decisions, and if they feel they can excel academically without attendance then they should not be penalized.
However I completely understand the university's stance on their attendance policy. They pay the teachers salaries for them to teach students, so how can they teach if there are not students in the classroom? Also students that go to class tend to do better, so making attendance mandatory is about one of the only things that the university can really do to help ensure student success.

In-Class Writing 3/23

Last year when I wrote my research paper, I had a very different view on illegal immigration. I believed that every single illegal alien living in this country to should be kicked out and sent back to their countries. However as I began researching the subject I started to realize that my stance was perhaps a little too harsh. I came to find out that it is often times the illegal aliens that are the ones that do the jobs that many in the United States deem themselves "too good" to do. They come to this country in hopes of making their lives better for not only themselves, but their families as well. By the end of the paper I had changes my stance a great deal, and now believe that if they begin paying taxes and are not being a cancer to our society they should be allowed to stay in the country.

SWA#11

When it comes to articles, I believe the most important part of credibility is where the article comes from. Credible sources, such as newspapers, will seldomly allow pieces that lack a level of credibility to be put into circulation. They usually tend to not be as biased as say the Shelly The Republcan blog. A lot of credibilty can come from a moderately written article; people tend to believe it more because the information is not completely slanted one way or the other. The source plays a big role in bias because of that, they need to make sure that they remain a reliable source of information to their readers. Because of that they need to keep their credibility, which is why the source of an article is very often the most important part about the credibility of an article.

Warm-Up 3/16

Out of the three Carolina Reader articles I believe that the "Plan for Homeless Gets Mixed Reactions" was the most rhetorically appealing. It appeals to the logic of the readers very effectively. It represents the logic of the both sides for the possible move equally effectively by giving the reasons for and against the move. Any reader could understand why the side would or wouldn't be opposed to the move. The article appeals to the emotions because both sides realize the importance of the problem of the homeless in Columbia and how important it is to fix it. They share their feeling about how dire an issue it is, but just not the same ideas on how to go about and fix it. I think because of the justifications of that both sides give along with the emotions that they express to give the readers a better understanding about the issue of the homeless in Columbia.

In-Class Writing 3/2

The main argument in "The Controversy behind Barbie" is whether or not Barbie is a positive or negative role model for young girls. There are those who believe that Barbie portrays negative female stereotypes and that Barbie is responsible for the poor body image that girls have. And then there are the others that say Barbie is a good role model because she is able to do everything.
The audience is mainly intended to be women, especially those that have had a Barbie. The rhetoric appeals are intended to make them feel one way or another about Barbie.
It seems like feminists hold the first viewpoint because of the way they try and over-analyze a doll and blame all negative female stereotypes on Barbie. The second position seems to be Mattell because it makes Barbie seem like the perfect role model that can inspire girls to do anything they want to do. And the third view seems to be that of logical people. They realize that Barbie does portray some negative stereotypes, but yet is not responsible for all of the negative images of females.
The author is for the third position. She explains how she believes that Barbie does in some way teach girls to look up to the material things, but she also feels Barbie is a scapegoat that gets blamed for more than she should.

Warm-Up 3/2

The most interesting piece of information that I found while researching for Paper #3 was that it is legal to grow marijuana in certain counties in Northern California. In fact it accounts for almost two-thirds of their economy because they grow it and sell it to the government. I found that interesting because that is very different from the rest of the country and I wouldn't have expected the government to buy it back.

Exploratory Paper

The issue that I plan on researching for my paper is the legalization of marijuana in the United States. In almost every single part of the United States it is illegal to possess, grow or smoke marijuana. However in some places you can possess small amounts of it in certain places. It is also allowed to be used with prescription by cancer patients. In northern California growing medical marijuana is legal, in fact it accounts for almost two-thirds of their economy. Yet the federal government has yet to put in laws that would legalize Marijuana nationally in the United States, even though our neighbors in Canada have.
Legalizing marijuana appeals to a very wide audience. Even though it is illegal, marijuana is one of the most commonly used drugs in the U.S. It is not restricted to certain age groups, marijuana users range from the middle school students to grandparents. The marijuana users would like it to be legalized to get rid of the current punishments that are associated with getting caught using marijuana. These proponents feel as though there is no need for the government to put constraints on marijuana because it is not a drug that kills people as opposed to cocaine and heroin. However there are still very many who believe that marijuana should stay illegal because it is a hallucinogen drug that is mind altering. Opponents feel that if marijuana is allowed to be legalized then the flood gates could open up for other drugs as well.
There are three main positions in the issue on legalizing marijuana. They are the supporters for legalizing all drugs, who feel that the government should not limit what they chose to do with their own lives. Supporters for legalizing all drugs think that they should regulate what they put into their bodies, not the government. Then there is the middle, supporters who just want marijuana legalized. They believe that marijuana is not harmful and should be allowed to be smoked as freely as tobacco. And finally there is the side that doesn’t want to legalize marijuana at all. Not only do they feel like marijuana should not be legalized because of the fact that it is a hallucinogen, but also because it could open the flood gates to other drugs to be legalized as well.
I personally am interested because the legalization of marijuana is one of the issues that I feel affects my peers and I the most. I favor the government to legalize all drugs. If they did that than they could tax them to help the economy, but also because I feel like it should be the individuals decision to what they put into their bodies.