HW February 2, 2015

One strategy that Haydar uses very well in her paper is her use of pathos. She is able to connect to the readers/audience, through her many examples of her own life story. This is to show that she is just like the rest of us in her experiences; a normal American. This strategy makes the walls between the reader and Haydar seem less of a divider, and connections are definitely made easier therefore proving to be a  successful strategy. On the other hand, I believe that one of Haydars weaker strategies is when she attempts to address the American ideology of what is practiced. She assumes that all Americans are provocative, promiscuous individuals that only wish to be seen in that way. This is a completely negative way of thinking and weakens her argument significantly because this shouldn't be generalized simply for the fact that it certainly doesn't apply to all American women. 

In reading "The Muslim Woman", by Lila Abu-Lughod the main points of the article involve the politics behind the use of the veil, the traditions, and free choice. The one that stands out to me the most would have to be when she discusses free choice in relation to tradition as well. It is made obvious that Muslim women do consider themselves active members in society as far as projects for women rights. It is not necessarily that they are forced into wearing these veils because they are thought of as "less" than a man. Choice is key to them and their decisions are highly respected whether a veil is chosen to be worn or not. All the power to them in that instance, the choice is up to them. Thats the most powerful message of this point. Although tradition is set to a certain standard, all women have the option open to dress how they want to. 

HW January 28, 2015

Veiled Intentions 
Haydars Article 
Maysan Haydar a copy editor for "In these Times", published the article Veiled Intentions: Dont Judge A Muslim Girl by her Covering, in 1998. Although her article was a short and very brief story of her life, she was able to convey her whole self into the paper. Haydar grew up a traditional Muslim girl in the Midwest of the nation. Part of a small Muslim community,  hijah (headscarf) was very typical to be chosen to be worn or not at the time the girls reached age 12, and that is where Haydar begins her story. The main claims of the article revolve around the central ideas of religion, tradition, conformity in your own body and typical stereotypes that are just that, stereotypes. Haydar is able to present these claims through various uses of evidences and strategies. Haydar often uses personal examples of her own life, like the story of her 12 year old self, or her experience walking down the busy streets of New York in her college years. She addresses the situation with anecdotes, and then furthers her claims with both traditional views of her culture and modern world views. Muslim girls are just as independent as anyone else, the choice to wear a hijah is completely up to them and this shouldn't be frowned upon in any culture. One basic strategy that is utilized is commonplaces and an additional one is exemplification. Haydar is able to make these two strategies useful yet the weakness that prevails is the obvious bias she has. Not to say that only weakness is evident in the paper, but it is definitely shown. The strength lies within her multiple examples, personal examples, and anecdotes. Overall Haydar produced a solid paper. 

Kristof Response

In reading this article, Kristof's main claim is very obvious and it is that gun laws should be regulated more seriously. In addition to this man claim/central argument of the paper, Kristof also finds ways to add in many more sub claims that are relevant as well. These include the ease of buying a gun, the tragedies that can come of guns, as well as safety rules that should be instated. Now throughout this paper it is apparent that Kristof makes solid attempts to make use of ethos, pathos, and logos to really convince the reader/audience that something should be done about the relaxed gun regulations that are currently in effect. Kristof is able to make use of statistics, professional studies done, personal anecdotes, references to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, and even hit home with a reference to the Sandy Hook shooting of 2012. Through the use of logos, pathos, and ethos Kristof really gets through to readers. For example, in the beginning of the article the Sandy Hook reference is made which automatically gets into the emotion level of readers because it makes one think of little 4 and 5 year olds that were innocent souls that deserved more from their life than what they were given. Kristof continues on this pathos route in the next paragraph as well. He states, "the fundamental reason kids are dying in massacres...is that we suffer from a political failure to regulate guns". Children are "13 times more likely to be murdered", lets think about the diction here. "Massacres" and "murder", two gruesome words that get the reader to start thinking a little more opened minded about this very controversial topic. Next Kristof continues to briefly hit on the logic aspect by turning to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and hits the audience with the fact that ladders.."have five pages of regulations..and kill 30 people a year". Meanwhile guns have zero regulations and kill 30,000. We even regulate toys better than we do guns, laughable right? We have gone through too many tragedies at this point, and nothing has been done yet. Slowly Kristof is opening people up to the idea of change without the reader fully knowing it. One of the last ways, and maybe one of the most powerful ways he persuades readers to a new mindset is through his personal story. Kristof says, "my dad gave me a .22 rifle for my 12th birthday. I understand; shooting is fun! But so is driving, and we accept that we must wear seat belts, use headlights at night, and fill out forms to buy a car. Why can't we be equally adult about regulating guns?". This is a valid point Kristof,and it leaves the audience really thinking about the central issue which is the need for better regulation of guns. The final note that Kristof leaves readers with is in the last paragraph, "If we don treat guns in the same serious way [regulated safely], some of you and some of your children will die because of our failure." A chilling thought to most, but an excellent way to ensure the attention that this topic requires. 

A Little Bit About Me .

My name is Jill Finney as indicated by this blog page, and I am currently in my second semester of my freshman year at the beautiful San Diego State University. Im sure you already know this though because I was a student of yours last semester. Despite this, Im still going to inform you of all the things that I hope to accomplish not only in class this semester, but also my goals for the rest of my academic career and beyond. Right now I am a Kinesiology major, and at this point I am thinking that I would love to become either a chiropractor or a physical therapist, however we will see where my journey takes me. This path that I am on right now was greatly influenced by my past experience with athletes and sports. I myself played softball, soccer, and volleyball for the majority of my life so being in an environment having to do with sports and athletes is of great comfort, interest, and passion for me. Due to the fact that I played sports I feel that those experiences made me who I am today, I love working with other people to establish common goals and I also enjoy helping others through encouragement to do their best, which I expect from myself as well. Academically I have always been a good student yet writing is definitely not one of my strong subjects nor is it my favorite. However, typically I can find myself writing a lot if its not specifically for academics. Emailing, texting, and even writing the old fashioned traditional letter are my main gateways to writing in my life. Typically I can find myself writing about millions of different topics, sometimes its just about my day or how school was or even the oh so common gossip. Other times I find myself writing as a way of expressing my emotions, more of a "diary" sort of writing; most of the time this occurs when Im feeling overwhelmed or especially sad or frustrated. Its a way for me to let some steam off in a sense. Writing is definitely in my life everywhere, all the time, but  I love using it more recreationally, outside of the classroom. As far as how I feel about my writings, I don't see myself as a writer or potential writer at all. Sometimes I just feel that my writing is just average, I mean Im not anything special I am just kinda here. Anyways I do look forward to this upcoming semester because I want to try and improve my writing because it does need work. Lets face it, Im am not perfect but with a little extra help and time put into my academic writings I can and will slowly improve my abilities throughout the semester. Thats what I wish to gain from being in this class and I know that it is totally completely possible and manageable. So heres to a fabulous semester of learning and improvement.