Body 1: Why is Gen Ed necessary? Why does it have to be present in our current education system in order for it to function effectively?

Body 2:  Reflect on our current Gen Ed system, and what can we improve from the system we’re using now to make it better and to meet the goal of it. What are the things necessary in this system？

Body 3: The school should focus on the flexibility, exploration, and real life application of the Gen Ed program. There should be several different types of Gen Eds programs for students to choose from since every student is different and has his/her preference. Think of a way to meet the needs from all different kinds of students.

Personally speaking, I think general education is absolutely necessary for the college students. General education makes students more well-rounded, and it helps the students to better fit into the society. However, when the general education has gone too far and it’s not even “general” anymore, the system should be changed in order to better serve its original purpose.

From learning the 3 prototypes of general education, I think Modern Literacies serves the best for the purpose of general education, which is to let the students to explore the possibilities and strengthen themselves. General education should include enough freedom and options for the students, and it shouldn’t be limited to one specific area of study. While the other 2 prototypes seem to be interesting and enjoyable for a small group of people, they might be too specific for the majority of students. Originally, I thought the idea of Chosen Topics would be cool, just because that it lets me to actually explore every single aspect of the education system. However, later I found that different people may have different interests, and they should be promised with the freedom of choices since this is general education that won’t deal too much with students’ careers later in life. Modern Literacies, in this sense, would be certainly a better choice because it not only grants students the opportunities to explore, but also it doesn’t limit the students’ choices to specific fields of study. It gives students the chances to choose, and this freedom of choice is one of the most important things for college students. In the other one, the Scaffolding prototype, the idea of general education seems to be completely thrown away, and it only leaves the professional aspect. The general education should be more about exploring than forcing the students to commit 24 credits to one specific subject. Taking the general education to a level of 400 course is just too much.

Overall, I still prefer the Modern Literacies prototype since it not only allows the students to explore, but it also helps the students to prepare for their lives in the society. For example, it has a requirement of financial literacy that improves the students’ knowledge of something that they will be frequently dealing with after they graduate, and even when they are in school. This prototype of Modern Literacies will certainly prepare me and the other Pennstaters better for their future.

In my perspective, the Gen Eds is extremely important for the college students. We come to college not only for the purpose of finding good employments in the future, but to learn and explore the unknowns. Gen Eds provides the opportunities for us to build ourselves into well-rounded people. We all need passion in life, and this passion may not necessarily related to our majors. I’m a business major, but I also like music and art. I think the Gen Eds offers me the chance to learn more about my passions. Later in life, these knowledge is going to build me up into a stronger person, and I will always have something that I’m passionate and knowledgable about.

It’s also too early in our life to say what we want to do for the rest our lives. The Gen Eds helps me explore the unknowns, and offers me more possibilities for my paths into the future. It’s not until we learn something we find out whether we enjoy learning it or not. If I don’t want to take the risk of choosing a class that I don’t like, how would I ever find out that it doesn’t suit me well? College is about exploring, and it’s about finding yourself. We are lucky since we are still young, and we have the energy and time to make mistakes, and correct them.

There is one more thing the Gen Eds gives us–the social network. When you encounter new people, if you have something that you are professional and passionate about, it’s easier for you to build up a topic and talk about. The more you know, the more you could talk about it. It’s quite pleasant if you could also find some people sharing the same interests with you this way. Knowledge builds on your social network, and it makes you seem wiser than the others

Krystal Gu

Dr. Jessica O’Hara

English 015

Oct.28, 2014

Global Warming: Exist Or Not?

Sometimes it could be found that people, who have some influence in one particular area of study, want to challenge the authority and change the public opinions just by implying his thoughts without providing proves and facts on the issue. In the case of global warming, this concept is well demonstrated by John Coleman, a weatherman, through his article “The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam,” and therefore is satirically rebutted by the Centrist Party to be misleading and no-fact based. John Coleman believes that global warming is “a hoax, bad science, a highjacking of public policy, and the greatest scam in history” without offering any ground for his saying. In the “Rebuttal to ‘The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam,’” the Centrist Party intends to reveal the nonsense of Coleman’s article by responding “If, for example, I am totally convinced that elephants can fly when my eyes are closed, does it make it true?” to Coleman’s statement “I am totally convinced there is no scientific basis for any of it.” By using a variety of rhetorical techniques, including sardonic humor, commonplaces, fallacies identification, focus on details, appeal to emotions, and concrete proofs, the Centrist Party is capable of testifying the existence of global warming, and rebutting John Coleman’s absurd standpoint.

Sarcasm and humor are being used quite frequently throughout the entire paper in order to keep the readers on track, and avoid them being drawn into the red herring or straw man fallacy. Looking at the paper written by Revelle and Suess, regarding to the greenhouse effect generated by carbon dioxide, Coleman points out that “It seems to be a plea for funding for more studies.” By using sarcasm, the Centrist Party compares the scientist’s need of funding for research to the weatherman’s need of money to do weather, and indicates that global warming is not wrong just because of the scientist’s need of funding. Sarcasm consents the writer of the Centrist Party to prove the point that Coleman’s standpoint is often misleading with no evidence back up. The writer continues to argue his point that global warming should not be considered as non-existing just because we don’t quite understand about it. “Just because we don’t understand everything about gravity does not mean we all just start floating off into space.” Instead of always using scientific based evidence to persuade the readers, the writer sometimes makes good use of sarcasm and humor to better convince people and induce them to participate in active thinking. Sarcasm and humor sometimes work better than overwhelming facts in the sense of persuading people.

In addition to using sarcasm and humor to convince the readers, the writer of the Centrist Party also emphasizes the rhetorical fallacies in John Coleman’s article to question the credibility of him. Coleman tries to appeal to the readers’ emotions by stating that the government should not “punish the citizens for living the good life that fossil fuels provide for us.” Using such classis strawman and non-sequiturs fallacies, Coleman moves to a topic that’s easier for him to argue about instead of focusing on the global warming. No science is present in this argument, but the readers could be easily distracted and pulled into the direction Coleman has set meticulously set up. Sometimes these rhetorical fallacies are hard to identify, and the readers have to take a step back and think about what direction of the argument the writer is trying to sway the readers into. Later in Coleman’s article, he also presents his opinion upon why global warming is gradually becoming a popular topic among the researchers, and he points out that “other researchers with environmental motivations and a hunger for funding saw this developing and climbed aboard as well.” At a moment, the readers may be fooled and start thinking whether this is indeed the ultimate reality behind the topic of global warming that’s gradually becoming epidemic. The write of the Centrist Party identifies that Coleman is using the red herrings fallacy to distract the readers from science here, and his emotional appeals actually work on some readers. The writer of the Centrist Party clearly recognizes the various rhetorical fallacies inside Coleman’s argument, and therefore effectively puts his credibility in doubt.

After pointing out the rhetorical fallacies in Coleman’s argument, the writer of the Centrist Party then identifies many mistakes in the details and words in his article that make Coleman seem even more absurd. The writer first of all cites Webster’s definition of pollutant as “man-made waste” to rebut Coleman’s saying that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. How could the key players officially label carbon dioxide as a pollutant when pollutant is referring to something man-made? The writer of the Centrist Party makes good use of the definition of pollutant to question the reliability of Coleman’s argument. Details are at times fairly important regarding to create a reliable image for the readers, and a small fallacy in detail at times could ruin the whole argument. Coleman considers carbon dioxide to be only “tiny fraction of the atmosphere,” the writer of the Centrist Party notices this, and states the “it is the only thing between us and a frozen planet that could not support life.” Coleman is trying to downplay the significance of global warming by including phrases like this that are quite misleading for the readers.

The most effective element in this satire piece is probably the various kinds of resources as evidence related to global warming that is being used in order to rebut Coleman’s nonsense argument. Although Coleman states, “they offered no proof that carbon dioxide was in fact a greenhouse gas,” contrastingly the Centrist Party clearly refers to the 1^st paragraph on the second page of the 1957 paper that evidently establishes CO2 as the greenhouse gas. Knowing that statistics and facts work the best at times when appealing to emotions is not anymore effective, the writer of the Centrist Party backs up his/her opinions with evidence from the scientists and the authority. According to John Coleman, CO2 is going to be reduced from the tailpipes while using the catalytic converters, but from the 5 meticulously constructed chemical reactions formulas, it could been seen—even for those who are not under chemistry majors—that catalytic converters are indeed generating CO2. The writer of the Centrist Party combines rhetorical techniques together with the overwhelming facts to well persuade the readers that John Coleman’s statements are not at all scientifically backed up by proofs, and his saying should not be easily trusted without being verified.

It’s obvious that global warming is occurring and actions should be taken in order to control the situation after reading this satirical article of the Centrist Party. The writer of the Centrist Party fastidiously combines logic, proof, sarcasm, and identifies the rhetorical fallacies and the smallest mistakes in John Coleman’s argument to declare his/her viewpoint. Although the writer of the Centrist Party is not mentioned in the article written, his meticulous and sarcastic style of rebuttal wins over the audience and makes the American public aware of the growing concern for the greenhouse effect cause by CO2.

Works Cited

Coleman, John. “The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam.” – KUSI News.

N.p., 16 Sept. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <http://www.kusi.com/story/

13167480/the-amazing-story-behind-the-global-warming-scam>.

“Rebuttal to “The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam”” — The

CentristParty. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <http://uscentrist.org/platform/

positions/environment/context-environment/john_coleman/the-amazing-story-behind-the-global-warming-scam>.

Rebuttal on Global Warming

This article gives many opinions to Mr. Coleman’s statement that global warming is a hoax. The Centrist Patry writer pays great attention to the details in the article written by Mr. Coleman. Step by step, he points out his personal standing upon the evidence he finds contrasting from Mr. Coleman’s arguments without profound evidence as support. He analyzes Mr. Coleman’s arguments and points out the fallacies that are frequently occuring. I would write about how the Centrist Patry reporter’s rebuttal on Mr. Coleman’s arguments related to global warming efficiently argue against Mr. Coleman’s opinions through different strategies the writer uses.

http://uscentrist.org/platform/positions/environment/context-environment/john_coleman/the-amazing-story-behind-the-global-warming-scam

During recent years, plastic surgery has grown more and more popular among people, especially Korean females as a way of redefining and improving their external looks. The Atlantics and RYOT view this subject of matter drastically differently; the Atlantics took it more temperately, while RYOT consumingly alarmed the extremism plastic surgery had been taken to. To achieve this distinction, two articles pay great attention to their titles, word selections, and quotes that are used to appeal to the readers’ different emotions.

Title is the first thing one looks at and takes in while reading an article. Before delving into the article, it’s the thing that genuinely creates the “first impression” at the top of readers’ minds. The Atlantics relates the plastic surgery more with the K pop culture than with the individuals’ voracity of beauty within the country. The word choices of “inspired” and “encouraged” instantly set a more positive view on the subject than those in RYOT’s title do. People do plastic surgeries because they are driven by this culture that “ equates success with physical beauty”. Under this kind of circumstance and pressure, who has a choice not to do so? RYOT makes good use of word, such as “so”, in the title to express the intensity of plastic surgery occurring in South Korea. Also, the title defines the reason that the author considers the plastic surgery has become a real issue—people even need to create new IDs just because that they are too different from how they look before doing the surgery. Only from looking at the titles of both articles, there could be extremely dissimilar feelings generated in readers.

By utilizing also the words and sentences within the article, the Atlantics and RYOT also create strong contrasts upon the subject of matter. Born within the pop culture and with her mother and aunts all gone through the plastic surgery, the California-born Korean girl Hailey Kim also wants to achieve the zenith of her own beauty by choosing plastic surgery—“and why shouldn’t she?” Using a rhetorical question like this, the author asks the readers to reflect on the cultural influence induce Hailey to pursue beauty in such way, and at the mean time the author implies her opinion that Hailey has the freedom to do so. The author interprets that there is no other choice given for the Korean women in order to become accepted by this culture, by using the word “juggle”—“women need to juggle the cultural expectations” to become more productive. This word “juggle” explains the situation perfectly without any need of further explanation. The Korean women are “demanded” to perfect themselves within a society like this, and the ultimate beauty has truly become one of what was called the survival skills back in the old days. In Korea, there are two extremely popular surgeries—the eyes and nose surgeries; in the article, the author argues that these two surgeries are so common that they are not even considered as the so called “surgery”, and instead they are given the name, “operations”. “Operations” make the actual surgeries seem even more accepting for the readers because it evokes milder sentiment within the readers. In this manner, the author makes good use of words with positive connotations, and therefore effectively appeals to the readers’ feelings—sometimes their decisions are also being driven by the society.

In the other article written by RYOT, it’s not hard, even through limited use of word, to find that the author reserves a more reluctant acceptance, or even somewhat a decline towards the rampant plastic surgery in South Korea. In this article, the author includes word like “hard” to reflect on the severity of the situation—those who have performed plastic surgery always need “hard proof” of surgery certifications in order to go back to their homeland. Although this article uses bare words, words like “hard” not only describe the situation clearly to the readers, but also state the author’s negative attitude towards the subject.

In addition to the titles and word choice, both articles also elaborate their standings through the use of quotations. Dr.Kang expressed his opinion while offering Miss Lee the non-surgical V-line procedure, “I’m a surgeon, I can’t help but view the face that way.” This personal standing not only denotes the South Korean cultural perspective of beauty, but also obscurely conveys the author’s own opinion. “There’s a small backlash against it now, but they still only hire pretty people.” Under certain social pressure, people aren’t given the option of choosing, and instead they have to obey to the cultural trend in order to survive. Hailey also expressed her wish of doing plastic surgery and explained, “There is nothing wrong with accepting yourself or changing yourself to be happy. Whatever you decide to do, people will always judge you, but they can only bring you down if you let them.”

The author availably cites quotes and imparts her own opinions through the others’ words. In contrast, RYOT uses quotes connoted negatively, such as “that’s no excuse,” and offers readers insights into the author’s own viewpoint. The author of this article also calls for “pumping the brakes” at the end and clearly declared his standpoint.

The same topic can have drastically different effects on the readers through the distinct ways the authors write about the topic. Both authors effectively state their own viewpoints through the good use of connotation of the articles’ titles, word choice, and quotations.

Works Cited

Roffee, Ben. “PHOTOS: Plastic Surgery Is So Extreme in South Korea That People

Need New IDs – RYOT News.” RYOT News. N.p., 07 Apr. 2014. Web. 07 Oct.

4. <http://www.ryot.org/photos-plastic-surgery-is-so-extreme-in-south-korea-that-people-need-new-ids/652457&gt;.

Stone, Zara. “The K-Pop Plastic Surgery Obsession.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media

Company, 24 May 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com

/health/archive/2013/05/the-k-pop-plasticsurgeryobsession/276215/>.

Plastic surgery is becoming more and more common among the Korean teenagers nowadays, and I will be comparing articles with drastically different opinions upon this topic. Plastic surgery has become such a popular topic today, and there are thousands of paper written on it. There are 2 links that I provided here, but the final paper may contain some other materials and stories.

Best Korean Plastic Surgery Clinics

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-k-pop-plastic-surgery-obsession/276215/

We’ve all done something wrong in life. Who were there forgiving us? Who were always there by our sides helping us? All of us have been at the stage of adolescence, and then, when we were willful and wild, who trusted and enlightened us even for whom we once were? We had all dreamt of being indulgent as teenagers, and we did things that drove our parents furious and even torn our family into pieces. With the so-called adolescence disposition, we had surrendered ourselves to do anything that suited our minds. We changed, but some of the things in life never change—our parents’ love for us. No matter what wrong we do, although resentful, in the end, our parents always look over it and seek ways to lead us onto the right track. We all have been there in life, and not only because of that, but also because of our parents’ giving births to us–we all possess such great gratitude towards them. Their grand and extraordinary love is not easily expressible through this plain sheet of paper, and this is exactly what BERNAS draws upon in a 3-minute commercial to evoke universal consensus and affect among the audience. By utilizing the intimate sentiment recalled from adolescence associated with everyone and the comprehensive emotions generated by the heartbreaking storyline, its rhetorical techniques, targeted consumers, rhetorical situation and style, BERNAS ‘s commercial “Gong Xi Fa Cai” enkindles the remorseful and grateful feelings deep within the audience.

The commercial draws upon a moving story in which the most compelling theme is the everlasting parental love regardless of return. This theme is greatly driven by pathos—ways to appeal emotions from the bottom of the audience’s hearts. At the beginning of the commercial, the son was begged by his mom not to leave, since he was emulative about being blamed by his father for a mistake he once made. Because of the aggressive nature of the teenagers at this age, he started working his way against his parents, and in the end even ran away from home. During the time when he was away, his parents’ life went dim and pale, and upon hearing the ill omen that their son fell off from the construction site at work, life became almost hopeless. Although angry and disappointed at the son, his father once again lifted him up just like when he was a child, and step by step taught him how to walk. By the end of the commercial, the son learned to walk again, and together the whole family finally got to sit together. Looking at how the parents in this commercial forgave and helped their child after all he had done, the audience is driven into remorse and tears of thankless and negligence towards parents. At this point, all these comprehensive feelings together best serve as the fertile ground for BARNAS to achieve its goal: persuade the viewership to use their products.

By integrating the family love with the everyday ritual—dining, BARNAS is tactfully targeting at audience at all different ages coming from distinct backgrounds. The audience, for the most part, is either parent or child (even a 35 year old would still be considered as child from a parent’s standpoint). Not only the children would be touched by the commercial for their repent of past ingratitude, but also the parents would be affected in the sense of feeling familiar with what they had done for their own children. All of them may be drive by their natural instinct to become the next consumer of BERNAS. As regards of dining, who doesn’t consume rice? All of those rice consumers out there are also being targeted, because upon watching this commercial—who doesn’t want to have chewy rice with palatable dishes together with the family?

In this case, the rhetorical situation, which is the house—where everyone’s mind belongs to, sufficiently supports the central theme in a way of creating intimacy and warmth within the audience’s heart. Its plot is set on the dinning table in the house where family always spends time sharing happiness and sorrow. The commercial reveals how much our parents have done for us compared to how much we’ve done for them. They gave births to us, taught us how to walk step by step, and pick us up when we are in the darkest days of our life. All the arguments started off at the dinning table, and by the end of the story, it was also peacefully settle down at the table. This family setting offers the audience an unrefusable reason to be automatically considered as the next candidate of GARNAS consumer.

This commercial’s contracted advertising style also serves as a successful point of winning over the audience. First of all, the commercial is limited to a minimum amount of voiceover. The background voice is so tidy that the three-minute commercial altogether only contains 5 well-constructed sentences. Secondly, the sentences are well paced, in regard to both contents and time. The first three sentences appear as: How easy it is for us to forget what it was like, how easy it is for us to forget how to smile, and how easy it is for us to forget how to love? Three interrogative sentences using a parallel structure to delve into people’s minds and to provide them with opportunities to indeed ponder and reflect on themselves.

These three questions are then followed by two declarative sentences. The first one goes, “It’s easy to forget, but it’s even harder, not to love.” It clearly answers the three questions asked above and sums up the most kernel of the commercial. It’s easily found that the use of pathos gradually shifts to the use of logos. The commercial ends with “Family is forever,” and BERNAS eventually declares its presence and it’s the supporter behind the scene. It has furtively won over the viewers’ hearts by claiming that it’s the company that upholds all the family worldwide. The time when these voices appear is also well paced. It’s easily noticed that these sentences are put at the place where the viewers’ emotions are badly suffered and minds are in need of being pacified. Last but not the least, the background music is well timed to the exact point. Especially when the son fell off from the construction site, it could be noticed that the music suddenly cut off leaving the audience with reverberating sound of silence—the time seemed to be paused at this point. At this point, the audience has been secretly persuaded.

It’s nothing new in advertising to use pathos. Thousands of corporations employ the idea of pathos into their advertisement, but BERNAS differentiates itself with the rest of the others by also incorporating the idea of logos towards the end of the ads. By drawing upon the human emotions and taking great advantages of rhetorical techniques, BARNAS’s commercial “Gong Xi Fa Cai” reaches the zenith of within the field of advertising.

Works Cited

BERNAS. “Inspirational- Try To Watch Without Crying 90% People Cry.”YouTube. YouTube,  n.d. Web. 22 Sept.2014.<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BZmuz88KEY&gt;.

Introduction

I will be writing a description of the commercial itself and explains the background that it’s undertaken.

Rhetorical Techniques

I will touch on the Pathos and Logos that are being used in the commercial and talk about how the ads is trying to grab the audience’s attention. I will be paying close attention to the details in this commercial that really can persuade the audience.

Did it work?

I will be asking different people to watch the commercial and make up a summary for all of these different opinions. I will be putting in my own thoughts about whether the techniques that are being used above are affective in the aspect of grabbing audience’s attention and persuading the consumers.

Why did it work?

I would delve deeper into the rhetorical techniques that are being used in this advertisement to give a better understanding of how they are being used from a psychological aspect. I would focus more on the pathos argument and describe why this ads seems more alluring and convincing than the others.

Conclusion

I will sum up all the opinions and information above.

1. Baidu Cloud: This advertisement is about an online storage for your documents, music, calendars, and basically anything that you want to keep track of. It’s 6 minutes, which is comparably a very long advertisement. The main character in this ad is someone who lost his short-term memory after a car accident. He could always remember something from long time ago, but he could never remember the things just happened–even where he put his toothpaste and something he has already done during the day. One day, he saw a sticky note on his desk at work with an account number and the password, he logged into the account surprisingly saw every bit of his life in detail on it. From time to time, he got better with his skills of remembering things, and he started to wonder who was the person behind the scene. He recovered from the injury and recalled the girl he was dating when he was on his way to make a proposal to her before the accident took place. He gave her a surprise and told her that let’s stay together. It uses pathos really well appealing to people’s sympathy and emotions. This online storage helps this man recovering from the injury and surely is the witness of a couple’s love story.

2. Barclaycard: This advertisement lets people see the life everyone wants to live. The main element in this ad is the roller coaster that makes everything faster in life. Your start off your day with hot breakfast and nothing would step into your way. It appeals to people’s logos and urges everyone to live a life like this. With this card in your hand, you would have the life like this.