One of the major assignments in English 400 was to write course journals that allowed the student to reflect on aspects her/she/they learned while reading assigned chapters. Below are 5 of my course journals that I completed while I was enrolled in this course. I chose entries that I think best reflect the variety of topics discussed throughout the duration of the semester.
Course Journal #1
What do George Washington, Donald Trump and Eminem have in common?….. rhetoric
1. After thinking about what I read, I would say that the biggest take away from chapter 4 is use of Egos , Logos and Pathos. Arguement by character, logic and emotion (p.38). I thought back to the 2016 election and how Donald Trump played a lot on emotions of his voters. One of his most popular points of view is about immigrants who are here illegally or without proper documentation. His plays on the emotion of fear in that he wants his voters to feel safe; ” if the immigration system prevents people from crossing the border illegally then bad crimes would stop happening by the hands of immigrants here illegally. ” (paraphrased statement not word for word quotation)
source :www.thesocietypages.org
2. From chapter 5, I think the discussion of decorum is interesting. I am sure that we are all familiar with the term “dress for success” or in this case for the occasion. I really enjoyed reading about Eminem and the scene from his semi-autobiography 8 mile. (P.49-50). He talks about how it was important to dress right for his rap battle against his opponent. While he may not have dressed for success he dressed for the occasion. 
source: www.thebitbag.com (Links to an external site.)
3. One thing that I learned from Ch. 6 is the use of tactical flaw , when you “reveal some defect that shows your dedication to the audiences values” (P.65). The example used is when George Washington says “forgive me, gentlemen, for my eyes have grown dim in the service of my country” (P.65). Basically, it is when you revel a flaw about yourself but use it to show “your dedication to the audiences values” (p.65)
Course Journal #2
Who is the speaker in the artifact: Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, focus on Donald Trump. The entity that released the artifact is NBC news which then posted the video to YouTube.
What is the artifact? The artifact is the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton in 2016. What is going on in the artifact is the debate between the two individuals who answer questions that are asked of them in reference to their run in the race for the Presidency of the United States of America. A debate is going on in the artifact. The artifact affected the people who watched it because its purpose was for each candidate to try and gain support for their campaign.
Who is the audience? The audience are the people that watched the debate and likely voted in the 2016 election. Otherwise described as the democratic and republican supporters of both candidates and possibly 3rd party supporters as well. The context is the run for presidency that both candidates are trying to win. Since both candidates where very controversial in nature, Hilary Clinton the possible first woman as president and Donald Trump, controversial in his approach. The debate was very publicized because of its controversary. Its impact was huge because it was going to change the minds of some people and seal the deal for others.
Why I chose this topic: I chose this topic because I feel like sine the hype had died down from Trump winning the election, we as a society accept a lot as fact now. We do not questions why and how. Those who support Trumps tactics feel as though his authoritative and “to the point” style is what we need. However, since his success in 2016, we have had a major rise in our country of people taking sides being pitted against one another. I want to investigate what made Trump successful? What did he spark in people in order to gain their support and what made people vote for him?
Course Journal #3
Ch. 9 I liked the point that the author made when he said when you argue emotionally, speak simply (p.88). I think that this is a really important thing that people forget. It seems like especially now. There are so many hot topics being discussed that are morally debatable and filled with emotion. An example I saw recently was a debate on facebook. There was an article posted by one of my friends that was expressing the opinion that what happened to Mollie Tibbetts ( she was murdered this past July by a man who was here illegally from Mexico ) was not about illegal immigration but rather about toxic masculinity. Meaning that anyone could have killed Mollie and the issue was about a man not taking no for an answer. As you could assume, it provoked a lot of emotion in some people and arguments where made by a man who felt as though all men where being stereotyped and later said “that what happens to a woman is her fault.” That did not take well with the others commenting. It got out of hand very quickly. I wonder how those people would have argued in person and not on facebook comments.
Ch.11 I thought that the mention of the commonplace was interesting in this chapter. A commonplace is a viewpoint your audience has in common (p.112). I see how this is used in politics all the time by both democrats and republicans, a point that the author brings up. I thought about the “trump train” idea that a lot of people who support Donald Trump have. I interrupt that as a commonplace because it represents ideas that multiple people have in common. Like being a part of a bandwagon.
Ch. 12 One thing that I thought was interesting in this chapter was the discussion of redefinition. Which means to not automatically accept the meaning your component attaches to a word (p.126). For example if you take something very debatable such as abortion, an example used in the text, one could argue that abortion means murder but to another person abortion could mean choice of the woman. Same word, different definitions. I like this idea because this is something that I do in my everyday life. I do not like to just take what people say as fact, I like to research things on my own. One quote that I heard from a TED talk is that, “we are not in a world of 7 billion people but of 7 billion different views of the world” (author unknown, TED talk). This is true in the term of redefinition because that is exactly what the term means, to define something on your own, in your point of view.
I really like this quote from Albert Einstein. I think that it is relevant to the points that the author made throughout the chapters. I also think that it is relevant to the world we live in today. We are constantly bombarded everyday with information and it is up to us to think for ourselves.
source: http://quotez.co/think-for-yourself-wisdom-quotes/
Course Journal #4
Ch.13
One thing that I took away from chapter 13 is the definition of hyperbole. I did not know what a hyperbole was before, I had heard of it but was not sure of the definition. The author says that you start small and work your way up (p.136). When reading this I thought of hunger. You start of hungry , plan to go grab some food. Then your days picks up and before you know it, you are so hungry that you are desperate for anything with sugar in order to keep your blood sugar from crashing. So like a hyperbole, the hunger progresses in stages.
Ch. 14
from chapter 14, I learned the way to see if a fallacy was hidden within an argument. The 3 questions: 1. does the proof hold up, 2. Am I given the right number of choices? 3. Does the proof lead to the conclusion? Also the ability to detect a fallacy. You can do this through detecting wrong number of choices or merging two or three issues into one (p.152). An example I can make up would be I want my bestfriend to go to the movies with me, she does not, I get mad. So when I confront her I bring up that she did not go to the movies with me, she ignored my phone call and she did not give back the shirt she borrowed. She made me upset so I decide to just clump all the issues even though the movies are the issue as hand.
Ch.16
From chapter 16, I took away what ethos starts with , which is the audiences needs (p.190). If I know friend needs relationship advice, I will establish that I am also in a relationship so that it would appear to her that I am talking from experience and building my credibility. This can be manipulated. If I do not like her boyfriend or say that I just got broken up with by my boyfriend and I am single and I want her to also be single because I am jealous. I could say things like “well you know Billy really does sound like he is lying and that he will break up with you just like Bob did to me so you might just want to break up with him first to save yourself the pain of being dumped.” I establish my ethos as having knowledge on how to notice a break up coming and manipulate her into thinking it will happen to her in order to get her to break up with her boyfriend.
source: www.google.com (Links to an external site.)
Elvis Presley – (You’re The) Devil in Disguise (Audio) (Links to an external site.)
I think of Elvis Presley’s songs “Devil in Disguise” because ethos can work that way. It can be so easily manipulated and it is. Just like Elvis says in the song “you look like an angel, talk like an angel but you are the devil in disguise.”
Course Journal #5
Ch. 20
I took away from Chapter 20, the concept of a Synecdoche in the more negative sense. The book defines it as taking a piece or part or member and makes it stand for the whole group (p.249) This made me think of the term for a toddler at age 2, is often characterized as being in their “terrible two’s.” You hear people worn about how bad children act at this age and that the parents should “get ready.” Sometimes this is said when people have not actually met the child (the member of that group) they are speaking of. This is an example of a synecdoche because it makes one individual two year old that did not properly behave out to be the representative of all two year olds, therefore making the statement “the terrible two’s.”
Ch. 22
Something that I thought was interesting and relevant to my life from chapter 22 is catching code or code grooming. Meaning that “what bonds one group excludes another” (p.263). It goes on to say that your own tribe can be “your family, age group, gender, religious denomination, socioeconomic group- anything that binds you with your very own words and images” (p.263) An example of this that I can think of is slang that teens today may use. For example if someone says “thats bae, that means that is the person they are in a relationship with. Or another one is “facts” which is usually said when one person says one thing that another person agrees with or that they identify with, they can respond by saying “facts” An example would be if I am talking to my bestfriend and I say ” I am really worn out at this point in the semester” and she responds by saying “facts” that means that she agrees and is probably worn out as well. One last example is today, when one person and another person are romantically interested in one another but they might now want a commitment as this point , you could say that they are “talking” Example: Person A: ” Brad is really cute!, are you guys together?” Person B: “No not really, we are just talking right now but I think he will ask me to be his girlfriend soon.”