Sadly, this was the last and final week of writing 2. It sucks that it is coming to an end, but it is an accomplishment finishing. This last week, I put together my final portfolio and reflected back on my learning over the quarter. It really made me realize how much I learned and how it has benefitted me. It didn't quite sink in until this weekend that I've grown so much as a writer and as a learner. I feel much more aware of my surroundings than I did before taking the class too, which makes me happy that I benefitted so much from the class. It makes me feel motivated to do well in my other classes too, because it gives me hope that there will be a reward at the end. I'll miss this class and all of these oh-so-fun blogs. This is my last thlog and blog post ever on this blog page, so I wish everyone a merry christmas and to all a good rest of the year. Peace.

Thlog 9

This week was pretty brief because we only had one class, but I actually learned a lot. During the presentations, we were presented with lots of information on writing and concepts that are essential for the college student to master. Although I already know most of the things taught on sentence structure, proper use of the comma, and proper use of the semi colon, it was good to learn about that stuff again to keep up-to-date and fresh on that stuff. In addition I learned some new things through doing my own presentation. As I worked with my group on presenting parallelism, I learned about the topic in more detail and started making connections between parallelism in the physical world and the content that we are learning in this class. I found it interesting the I could analyze a piece of architecture for its rhetorical features and actually identify a purpose for having certain things. As I move farther into the quarter with this class, I continue to make connections to my own life and I think that's really cool. I've learned so much already and It's only my first quarter here at UCSB!

Week 8 Thlog

I really liked this week and the work I did. To start, getting feedback on the rough draft of my WP3 was very helpful. I was able to take the advice fro my peer readers and incorporate it in my work which helped me out a lot. In my WP2, I got a lower score then I would have liked to so that was definitely a wake-up call. Many of the comments on my final, graded paper were about lacking specifics and direct evidence. I felt like this was the hardest and most boring writing project that we had, and I feel like my grade reflected that as well. However, it was a learning experience so I picked my head up and learned from it. Unlike the WP2, the WP3 involved a lot more creativity which I enjoyed. I was able to make the corrections to the content and style of writing that were necessary, and as a result I feel like I did much better on this one than the last. I used direct evidence from both of my translated genres that proved my main points, and I was also able to reference the course readings for additional support and credibility. All in all, I was pretty happy with the final result of my WP3. It's hard to believe that the quarter is coming to an end too! I really enjoy this class and appreciate what I'm going to take away from it, so it's kind of a bummer, but also a feeling of accomplishment. The only work that's left now is the final portfolio, so I'll have to grind that out over the next few weeks. Yes, it will be a lot of work and probably make me very tired, but it's the final stretch so it will get done. All is well in the world of writing 2!

Thlog week 7

 Week 7, I learned a lot more about translating genres and how they are applicable to the real world. I feel that the process of the WP3 really helped me dial that in. With my PB3a, I wasn't as specific as
I needed to be so the comments really helped me. I was capturing the most general aspects of my topic where I needed to go more in depth. In addition, I got handed back my WP2 where I received the lowest score I had on anything in college so far- a 7.5. This showed me, first of all, that there is a ton of room to improve. I learned that I didn't go enough in depth in my project and didn't use enough specific quotes and facts to prove my point as well as add credibility. I took Zack's comments into consideration when I made my WP3 analysis. I felt like Week seven was a bit of a wake-up call because It showed me that I need to be more proficient in the way I do my work and I need to spend more time going in depth.

PB3a - Nutritional Awareness

PB3a - Nutritional Awareness

Is controlling the food that’s put into your body important to you? Well, it should be. Foods play a huge role in the way we look and feel as human beings, but also influences our health dramatically. It can be the determining factor of acquiring a disease, chronic condition, or shortening your life. Food is an imperative part of living a healthy and happy life! So, I chose to analyse an article on Nutrition, and the likelihood of eating disorders across several professions, called Students of dietetics & nutrition; a high risk group for eating disorders?. My sole objective was to understand how the risks of these disorders vary among different professional groups, and derive a better understanding of how these disorders affect people’s health. By becoming more aware of the disorders caused from lack of Nutritional knowledge, it will make us more conscious about the way we eat and the potential risks of developing bad eating habits. Furthermore, translating this genre[Nutritional Eating Disorders] into two new ones that conform to specific age groups can tell us even more about the potential benefits and dangers of eating and make us healthier, smarter eaters.

For a genre translated from the original publication that conforms to a younger audience, a publication discussing the healthiest food choices for the young, developing brain and body would be extremely beneficial for kids to read. It would be educational and could benefit the lives of kids who are oblivious to the imperative nature of nutritional knowledge and application of the knowledge. An article from this new genre discussing the importance of healthy eating would be most effective if it first discussed the negative effects of eating unhealthy foods and provided relevant examples. Such examples could consist of pictures showing unhealthy, fatty body organs caused by unhealthy eating or visual, straight-forward, and easy to understand charts exemplifying the contrast between the mental performance of a healthy eater and a non-healthy eater with pictures of healthy and unhealthy food under the corresponding picture. The important aspect here is the use of visuals to allow a younger audience to understand the main ideas presented. Just as Important as showing the negative effects of unhealthy eating, the positive effects of healthy eating need to be made clear as well. An article of this genre could present examples of athletic performances enhanced by healthy eating, or pictures and diagrams of a healthy, functioning body to express the importance of healthy dieting. The main goal is to show kids that eating healthy and nutritious foods will benefit them in the long run, and educate them of what food choices are right and wrong.

In addition to the genre derived from nutrition and the likelihood of eating disorders across different professions conforming to a younger audience, I came up with a genre that would suite an older audience too. Once people are far past the stages of developing as humans, it’s important to focus on prevention and preservation of your body. The genre I came up with for an older audience that would conform to these necessities is foods that promote health preservation for older people. Unlike the other translated genre, this one is intended to provide older people with healthy food choices that support a functioning, balanced body. Many older adults are unaware of the health risks from poor diet, so an article from this genre would be extremely beneficial. This genre would possess some of the same conventions as the genre geared toward a younger audience like the use of visuals, but include more sophistication and statistics exemplifying the potential dangers of unhealthy eating. The readers of this genre will be more educated than the younger audience, so they will be able to interpret the meaning of these statistics and factual information. In addition, it would be beneficial for an article of this genre to include potential benefits of eating healthy in order to persuade the reader of its legitimacy and importance.

The two new genres derived from the original possess very similar conventions with respect intentions. They are both intended to strike awareness and persuade in their audience's benefit. These genres differ with content and obviously audience, which signifies the contrast in age groups. By translating the original genre into two new ones that have similar content, it makes the information presented conform to specific age groups more precisely which evidently makes them more effective.

Thlog week 6

This week, we went further in depth about writer's moves and how they affect the rhetoric behind different pieces. This has helped me understand author's intentions more, and has made me a more cognitive reader and writer. Aside from the WP2 and knowledge I derived from writing on the articles I analyzed, the online class helped me understand author's style more. The painter's styles all varied which signified differences in the way they presented the information. By seeing the ways that the painters went about painting tree's, I learned that everyone has a different approach of completing a piece. By finding a path that works best for you as an individual, it makes you a better writer because not only have you taken the move yourself, but you've found a way that conforms to your own unique style. From learning about the style that fits a person best, I now think about what moves fit my style when I write, and I believe that it will help me as a writer portraying my ideas. I did find a bit of difficulty following the painter's intentions of framing certain parts of the tree and how it connects to their purpose, but I feel like analyzing author's framing when writing is more straight-forward because I have more experience with it. All in all, I continue to feel like I'm learning new things and I'm happy with the improvement I see in myself.

Tree-Painter's Moves

In the Family Guy Video, The artist's attempts to hide the bush and make it a secret to the viewer. I’m not sure as to why he does this, but his move is making it hidden or blended in. The next video of the man teaching how to paint trees uses metaphors to describe what he is doing. These metaphors(his move) help the reader understand how to paint the trees in a way that makes visualizing it easier to understand. He paints thicker initially, and then uses different brushes to thin it out and make it look more natural. The disney artists do almost the complete opposite. They start very rough and then add details with thicker, sharper paint. They also visualize the trees in different ways which makes their own moves unique. They artists describe the way they uses their methods by highlighting the initial steps, and then unfolding the methods taken in order to to achieve their final product. I would characterize the cartoon artists style as very blunt and straight-forward. The afro-artist teaching lessons has a direct style that has boundaries, and the Disney artists have more flexible styles because they start at the base, building up whereas the afro artist starts at the top and builds down.

Journal Questions and Responses

Q1. So, in the end, how’d your WP2 paper go?  What were you happy with?  What weren’t you?  Why?  Be specific! (Remember: this is fodder for your end-of-quarter metacognitive reflection)

I actually felt like My WP2 went well. I came back to it multiple times to revise it and include quotes, readings and evidence, which help me a lot. I feel like doing it in layers made it much more simple, opposed to doing it all at once and being cluttered with confusion.

Q2. Which 2 or 3 comments that you received yesterday were the most helpful for you?  Why?

I received a comment yesterday about addressing the author instead of just saying “the author”. This helped make my paper more clear. Also, I had a few long paragraphs that were commented on. I decided to break them up in order to organize my paper more and categorize my thoughts and ideas. This helped my paper flow better and made my arguments and ideas clearer.

W5Thog

This week, we went more in-depth about writer's moves and their functions. Learning about these moves is really cool, because it opens up new perspectives on the way I read and write. When I read, I'm able to look for moves that not only affect the rhetoric of the piece, but more-so give me an idea of what the authors intentions are and what kind of audience the piece is directed toward. All in all, this ties in to being more aware and less likely to be mislead or spun. From a writing perspective, learning how author's use moves is extremely beneficial because I can apply the good moves to the way I write and learn from the ones that I think are not so effective. By gaining more experience with moves and observing them or using them myself, they seem to become easier to identify and I end up using them without even thinking. They can take the form of both content and structure, which is also really cool. By analyzing structural moves, I've derived a better idea of how to structure my writing to achieve the clearest format that makes the most sense to the reader. I've had a bit more trouble identifying all of the content-based moves because they aren't as explicit as structure, but with time and practice, I believe they will become more clear and more second-nature. I really like the things we are learning. It's cool stuff!

PB2b

Messi dribbles down the field, cuts right, leaving the midfielder on his ass, not knowing what hit him. He steps over the ball--faking the first defender out-- and does a scissor to escape the presence of the next. Messi touches the ball to the outside, he shoots, he scores! Goalllllllllllllll!!!! You see, Messi used his moves in order to score, which contributed to his ultimate objective- winning the game. Moves can be used by people of all sorts in order to accomplish an ultimate goal. When applied to writing, moves can tell us a ton about a piece. By analysing the author’s moves and identifying the intentions and functions behind them, we can derive a clearer understanding of the rhetoric behind a piece and become more-cognitive readers and writers.

In the article Why Blog? the author, Alex Reid, uses several moves found in the They Say, I Say Appendix. She starts her article with a quote explaining what it takes to become an expert at something: “but the fairly self-evident bottom line point here is that becoming good at anything worth becoming good at takes a lot of time.” She follows with an explanation of the quote--her move--which clarifies the point of the quote and functions as an introduction to her entire article. This explanation is effective because it explains why the quote is significant and goes to show that you don’t necessarily have to be an expert at something for it to apply to your life. The next move I identified in the article was entertaining objections. She begins the second paragraph stating, “Of course, most students aren’t interested in becoming expert writers.” This quote functions as a comfort builder for the reader. It addresses the fact that many students aren’t interested in becoming writers, even though the article is about blogging which is a form a writing. This is effective as well because it shows the reader that they don’t have to be an expert writer in order to enjoy blogging. She then makes a concession while still holding her ground: “ I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not wanting to become an expert, professional writer, any more than there’s anything wrong with wanting to be a surgeon or a carpenter.On the other hand, unlike surgeon or carpentry, college students pursuing professional careers will need some facility with writing.” This quote entertains that fact that writing isn’t an appealing career to most, but explains that there is cross-over between writing and other professions which proves its importance and signifies the author standing her ground. She also introduces an ongoing debate: “decades of research suggests that such extrinsic motivators(grades) can actually hurt our performance on challenging intellectual tasks like writing an essay.” This prove that it is a significant issue and functions as support to answer the main question of the article: why blog?(opposed to writing in a more formal, academic manner). Lastly, the author introduces a standard view in order to make the reader feel more applicable to this article and feel as though it applies directly toward them: “As a student in a first year writing course, you may not envision yourself as a writer.”  This statement conforms to most first-year students so its function is very effective.

Aside from the moves that were provided for us, I was able to identify some effective moves from different articles on my own. In the article Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking, the author uses a move I call “Explanatory Metaphors”. These are metaphors that the author uses in order to paint a clearer picture of what they are talking about for the reader. In the article it says, “It seems to many listeners as though I’m celebrating holidays from thinking.” This gives the reader an exaggerated idea of what free-writing is like for the author. Next, the author uses a move I like to call “What I like to do”. This move gives the reader a sense of the author’s personality and allows them to form an opinion on the author’s methods without questioning where the information is coming from. For example it says, “I like to emphasize how second-order thinking often brings out people’s worst thinking.” This is effective because it make the author sound unbiased, due to him expressing his thoughts opposed to expressing them as a statement; it makes the author more credible. In this article, the author also uses a move I call “Separating Content” which structures the article in a comprehensive, easy-to-understand way. It begins with explaining first and second order thinking and is followed by a separate section that links the two together. The next section then contrasts the previously explained “links” and explains the broader picture and how they function in a section subtitled practical consequences. This is an effective way of laying out the article because the information builds upon itself and re-enforces the ideas explained in the previous sections. Next, In Navigating Genres, the author uses a move I call “fishing with a Joke”. The article begins with a joke about country music that exemplifies how understanding the conventions of the genre is necessary in order to find humor in the joke. This is effective because it not only functions as a hook for the reader, but shows what the article is going to be about. The author also uses a move I call “Downing with Evidence” which essentially means drowning the reader with evidence. The author provides tons of quotes in order to support his claims and show credibility. He explains an idea and supports his explanation with direct evidence. This move is extremely effective because it provides clarity and credibility.

Identifying the author’s moves is an essential component in understanding the rhetoric behind a piece. From identifying these moves, we can derive a better understanding of how they function and how effective they really are. By doing so, we can become better writers and readers.

Week 4 Thlog

I felt like this week was very beneficial for me becoming a more effective reader and writer. We learned a lot about the author's moves, and how they can tell us about the intended audience, the author's intentions and any hidden truths the paper has. In addition, learning about the writers moves can help us in our own writing. By analyzing the writer's moves and seeing how they have laid out their paper and portrayed their ideas in a certain format, we can derive certain aspects from it that we like and think would work effectively in our own work. At first, I found it a bit difficult identifying the writer's format and "moves", because the pieces we read in class were structured differently and didn't exactly have a uniform way of presenting ideas and laying them out. However, after making a reverse layout and actually reading the body paragraphs before the intro and thesis, it made the piece easier to understand and I was about to identify some of the author's moves and form an opinion on them. Aside from the work we did in class and identifying the most important parts of a publication through the PB1b, I learned more about author's moves and identifying them through the reader Reading like a Writer. I learned some interesting approaches on how to identify these moves which ultimately gives me a better understanding of the rhetoric behind a piece. All in all, this was a very beneficial week for me and I feel like I'm learning a lot of cool, new things.

PB2a-JB

Deception caused by Fast Food Advertisements

“Children’s Recall of Fast Food Television Advertising- Testing the Adequacy of Food Marketing Regulation” is the publication I chose to analyze and compare to the SCI generator. This scholarly publication about the adequacy of Mcdonald’s and Burger King’s advertisements tests their rhetorical features in order to derive a clearer sense of what they are actually portraying, and how they are affecting the thought and decision processes of youthful viewers. Furthermore, The Fast Food advertisement publication possesses many of the same conventions as the SCI generator structurally and with content. By comparing the conventions and pinpointing the most important aspects of publications, we can derive a better understanding of the rhetoric behind them and identify any biased or persuasion tools; Identifying the publication’s true intentions can help us form accurate opinions on the issue and avoid being mislead.

Structurally, the scholarly publication I chose and the SCI generator are nearly identical. They both begin with presenting the reader with an abstract explaining the background, methods, results, and conclusion of the experiment to give the reader a summary or a general understanding of what the publication is about. Then, they are followed by an introduction and an explanation of how they went about conducting the experiment. Both publications include graphs, charts and diagrams,too. Lastly, they both have a conclusion followed by a reference page which adds to the publication’s credibility. The only difference in structure between the publication I chose and the SCI generator is the addition that my publication made, including supporting information-videos showing kids partaking in the experiment. With respect to content, both publications were rather parallel as well. They both possessed sophisticated, academic language and presented facts instead of opinion. They used logos-statistics and graphs- to prove a their findings, and created a sense of ethos through references, examples and supporting information. They didn’t, however, use pathos explicitly because they were experiments that used facts in order to prove a point.

Aside from comparing the conventions of the publication I chose, identifying the most important aspects of the piece was crucial in order to fully understand what it was trying to portray. First off, the introduction is a key component of the publication. It answers the “so what?” question, and presents the reader with a problem the experiment will attempt to answer. In “Children’s Recall of Fast Food Advertising”, the introduction exemplifies the immense amount of money that the fast food industry pours into marketing, and the laws behind such advertisements. Then, it presents the reader with the facts, exposing Mcdonald’s and Burger King for breaking these rules and regulations regarding deception, and introduces their experiment-testing the deceptiveness of the advertisements on youth.

The response assessment and statistical analysis sections were very important as well. These sections explained how the testers went about the procedure, analyzed their data, and explained what the these tests signified. Under the Response Assessment sub-heading, it explains the testing procedure to give the reader a clear understanding of what was actually tested. For example, it says, “Children were scheduled to come to the research laboratory with one parent...While the parent completed a questionnaire, the child was shown one of each of the four types of ads, with each one randomly selected from the ad pool and shown in random order, with the procedure carried out by an internally developed software program that also displayed the ads to the children…”. Under the Statistical Analysis section it states, “Children’s responses, defined as one or more words versus no mention per each category, were dichotomized to reflect any recall or no recall of food, healthy food (i.e., apples or milk), or premium/tie-ins. The proportion of children with any recall for each of the three categories was summarized by ad type, and McNemar’s test was used to determine if the likelihood of any recall differed by ad type.” This clarifies the purpose of these tests and shows what the responses actually mean in order to give the reader a full understanding of the experiment.

In addition to clarifying what the experiment is about, It’s also very important to show credibility. The supporting evidence section and the references page on the Fast Food Advertisement publication were imperative. These exemplified the publication’s use of ethos and made the piece credible. Without these essential components, the reader is left wondering where the facts came from and whether the claim is even logical or where it;s supported.

Identifying the key components of the publication can help derive the most important 
information, but can also tell us a bit about the author’s purpose. In this case, the author of the publications wants to prove a point, but to do so, they must exemplify credibility. With credibility and supporting facts, the the main idea presented by the publication is in fact logical, and can be used to formulate accurate and meaningful opinions on the topic.

Thlog week 3

This week, the primary emphasis was our WP1. I really liked this week's activities and thought I gained a lot from them. Doing the revising activities in groups was really beneficial because I got feedback from other people as well as insight on other people's writing. The combination of two definitely helped me improve my WP1 because I was able to add things in that helped the content and flow of my paper.  I was previously unclear on how I would go about incorporating outside sources in my paper, but after seeing multiple examples from my group member's work, I felt more confident about including them in my paper. In high school, I felt like getting feedback from classmates was useless because it was mostly made up of any bullshit a classmate could write down in order to make it look like they were actually doing something during class. Because of the lack of quality feedback, my papers were almost 100% revised by myself which usually consisted of a few grammer corrections and punctual revisions. With a paper outlining the revision process and having intelligent, hard-working students give me feedback, I was thrilled to revise my paper according to their criticism because it was honest and meaningful. Getting feedback from others is a great way for me to become a more effective writer, so I'm very happy that it's a part of this class.

week 2 thlog

This week, I learned more about conventions from the homework and review that we did in class. I really don't mind doing the homework because I feel like I'm becoming better at understanding rhetoric and making parallels with what we are learning in class to the real world. It's really cool! I thought identifying all of the conventions of the three different genres for pb1b was a bit more challenging, but I liked it because it made me better at analyzing genre. I also learned that while analyzing genre, we can look for patterns both structural and with content. When Zack went over the genres for pb1b, it really helped me understand how these things relate to understanding conventions on a deeper level because he made it clear to me that there are all kinds of ways to look at conventions. We can derive meaning, content, format, intentions etc.. I'm stoked on the new material I'm learning in this class and excited about what the rest of the quarter has to offer.

PB1b

Analyzing Generators

After assessing the different stylistic patterns of the genre generators, it’s clear that different genres possess different conventions both with style and content. In addition, some genres have conventions that are very explicit, and others have conventions that are much harder to Identify. Analysing these conventions are essential in order to derive the fullest amount of understanding from genres; this plays a key role in understanding a piece’s rhetoric.

The meme generator possessed conventions that were as basic as the structure and and as complex as the content of the piece. Every meme started with a statement at the top of the picture in larger letters, and was followed by a resolution or an additional comment in smaller letters that commented on the initial statement. With respect to content, almost every meme used satire that related to the character or person’s facial expression. Many of the photos were comical, taken off-guard and random which evidently made the comments sarcastic, dumb, or profound.

In contrast to the meme generator, the content of the computer science reports was rather dry and boring. However, there were conventions that related to the structure and layout of these reports. Each report started with an initial topic that fulfilled the “so what” question. The initial statement posed a problem that the report would attempt to explain and resolve. Furthermore, the experiment included at least one diagram to clarify what the report was explaining, and then was followed by graphs that explained the results. The reports all included resources at the bottom too that seemed to be randomly generated.

Lastly, the comic strip generator possessed conventions that were opposite to those of the computer science report generator. It lacked structural patterns, but had consistent traits with interactions between characters. The green-shirted character was extremely violent and negative in his actions and words, and used profound language consistently. Simon consistently made sounds and did very random stuff that would leave the viewer dumbfounded or confused. Identifying these conventions associated with individual characters helps identify their personality. In addition, the two character’s interactions weren’t exactly in sync. There were extensive cases where “green shirt” would ask simon a question and the next frame, where one would expect a response, didn’t relate to the question asked in the first place. From this, it is obvious that the order of the slides was random, except for the initial slide included some form of text.

Thinking about what is going on in these random generator websites and identifying patterns directly relates to understanding a genre. Each individual program behind these generators signifies a pattern, or a convention, which is then produced in each of the randomly generated pieces. Each genre is constructed with patterns and conventions that, well, make it a genre. Therefore, the conventions of a genre and the conventions of a randomly generated program parallel each other. It is imperative to identify these conventions because it plays a key role in understanding the rhetoric behind a piece. Finding structural patterns within a piece can help improve its clarity and help someone understand its rhetoric faster and more efficiently. Aside from deriving efficiency and clarity, identifying conventions can help one view a piece more empathetically in a way that prevents cynicism from taking control. With the ability to understand the underlying truth or discover personality traits, intentions, or hidden messages, while discarding a provincial outlook, it’s possible to gain a deeper and more thorough understanding of a genre and what it intends to portray. There are so many different ways to approach a genre and form an opinion on it, so looking at it with an open mind and searching for explanatory traits is essential.  

Fast Food Advertisements - PB1a

The fast food industry is one of the most powerful and persuasive industries in America. Everywhere you go, whether it’s a few miles down the street to the grocery store, a trip to the beach or a vacation to another country, there’s fast food advertisements with big signs colored in red and yellow that are suppose to make you hungry. Whether it’s on a billboard, a sign, a commercial or pasted in the windows of the restaurants themselves, these advertisements are all bound by similar conventions that give the fast food industry its negative image through the eyes of critics and skeptics.

Commercials are one of the main sources of persuasion that these companies use to draw customers in. They have playful vibes and smiles with groovy tunes that give the viewer a sense of comfort, followed by mascots or cartoon characters which contribute to the positive vibe. For Mcdonald, it’s Ronald Mcdonald and friends. For Burger king it’s the big-headed smiling king and for Carl’s junior, it’s the Happy Star. All of these examples possess the same characteristics that contribute to the positive vibe intended to persuade the younger portion of their audience.

Fast food advertisements also highlight teamwork to show that they “actually care” about the customer’s satisfaction and overall experience. In commercials that exemplify the daily duties of fast food workers, they’re smiling and look like they actually enjoy themselves as they work together to cater to the customers’ needs. In the 2015 youtube Mcdonalds commercial, a little boy orders an ice cream cone from an enthusiastic, smiling cashier who then proceeds to serve him. The little boy immediately drops the cone and frowns, but is cheered up seconds later by the cashier who gives him a new cone.

In addition to catchy advertisements that evoke a sense of pathos from the viewer, fast food companies use deals to persuade the older portion of the audience or the most general population. Two for the price of one is one of the most commonly used deals that fast food companies are grossly criticized for. The food may be extremely affordable, but it’s also very low quality, mass produced and very unhealthy. In 2014, Mcdonalds advertised Big Macs as being two for the price of one. Yes, two is better than one, but eating two Big Mac’s is extremely unhealthy. A single Big Mac contains 33g of fat which is 50% of a standard daily value. Eating two fulfills and an entire day’s worth of fat in just a single meal. Almost every fast food company has a dollar menu too, which is even more appealing and affordable. Presenting an audience with deals exemplifies fast food companies use of logos to persuade, and is indeed effective when used to draw in customers.

Fast food companies also intend to develop a sense of ethos for themselves by making themselves sound credible and more qualified than their competition. On most Mcdonalds signs below the big, yellow M, it says something to the effect of “billions and billions served”. This is supposed to persuade the viewer that they are a very qualified restaurant because so many people have eaten there. Additionally, in every Wendy’s commercial, they highlight the freshness of their natural ingredients which is intended to make their food seem higher quality than their competition who use shitty ingredients. What Wendy’s, McDonalds, and many other companies have in common is the competitive nature to persuade and mislead- gasoline that fuels the fire for affordances from the book Fast Food Nation to the documentary Supersize Me.

Mcdonald’s youtube commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZCbvpJ4O6c

James's Week One Thlog

This week I learned about conventions and how identifying them is imperative in order to truly analyze a genre. Learning this has really opened my mind to the many structures and patterns of genres, and has made me look at the world differently. Identifying these patterns in the world around me has made me more skeptical while analyzing situations and I now question the rhetorical features of anything that has the potential to mislead or spin me. I feel that I am more confident in myself when making decisions based on information derived from advertisements too. This has been very beneficial to me and I look forward to learning more about rhetorical analysis un depth.

Hi everyone! I'm James Burns and I'm a first year at UCSB. Im a Financial Mathematics and Statistics major and I'm really excited to be here. I'm from San Diego, CA and I've grown up surfing and doing lots of the fun activities that California has to offer.

 I've always enjoyed hiking and exploring the outdoors as well as snowboarding and just doing anything active. Ever since I was a kid, I've always liked riding things with wheels and going fast so I picked up skating and then learned how to surf and snowboard from my dad. I also really enjoy traveling and trying new things. Some of the places I've been are Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Oaxaca, Baja Mexico and the Hawaiian Islands.

Im not really the kind of person that likes to be restricted by guidelines or strict rules, so I've never really had an interest in any english courses I've taken in high school and before. I'm really looking forward to this class because it offers the freedom to explore more diverse styles of writing and communicating opposed to reading a boring passage and writing an essay in response to a single question. Anyways, I look forward to getting to know you all and having a great time here at UCSB!