Jordian’s English 207 Blog

I think it is essential for students to have access to computers in school. Especially high school and college. Computers provide us with the necessary tools to write a paper, research a topic, check email, relay important message, and the list goes on. With the advancement of technology it is crucial that students become computer literate. Computers skills learned in school will provide students with the basic but necessary skills that are required at some jobs. Some may argue that computers offer students the opportunity to look up unappropriate sites, or waist time on social websites. Although this is true, given a student who will use it for education purposes, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Part II – Audience – A travel companion on a train in Europe

The world is becoming so technologically advanced. If it weren’t for computers and the ability to book tickets online, who knows how long it would have taken us to book these tickets. Where did you learn how to use the computer for such activies? I learned in high school during computer classes and general use of computers for class assignments. You know, computers are essential to have in schools. They’re becoming an everyday tool required to function in the 21st century.

PSA’s should: 

Cover a particular issue 

It should be at least 30 seconds long 

The message should be clear

It should be targeting a specific target audience 

It should be effective

1. Internet usage is logged
2. Internet users
3. Video

1. Reality TV isn’t qutie Reality
2. TV Watchers
3. Video

1. Cell Phone use can damage brain cells
2. Cell Phone users
3. Video

How do the actors portay the message?

The actors portray the message by having different emotions and reactions the picture. Every person that came in contact with the picture acting in a different manner from the next. Some were shocked, some enjoyed, some were embarrased.

What persuasive techniques are used in the video?

This uses persuasive techniques such as creating awareness of the problem or issue, showing the importance of the issue, providing new information, and promoting behavioral change.

What role does the voiceover play?

n the six steps to effective PSA’s there is a tip that says talk to your audience not at them. I believe the voiceover does a good job at doing this. Also, the rhetoric used by the narrarator is a persuasive tone and uses key trigger words to grab our attention.

After reading the stattistics on literacy, I found it interesting in the Children’s statistics that “62% of partents with a high socioeconomic status read to their children every day, compared to 35% percent of parents with a low socioeconomic status.” I remember in elementary school being in a class with about 5 or 6 students who would economically be labled as “rich”, or well off. These group of students were always talking about how they were read this book, and knew this story.

The health and literacy results shocked me quite a bit. I guess I found it hard to beleive that lower literacy levels affects a person’s ability to take care of them self. I found this sad knowing that the 31% that they allude to in the statistics are usually people who don’t have opportunity vs people who lacked the ambition to learn reading (Product of Their Enviornment).

This blog prompt is the the most interesting prompt that we’ve had to date. My opinion is probably bias because of my strong passion for technology and my interest into how it effects the way we learn and how we communicate. Despite all the positive and exquisite breakthroughs in technology, the more and more we incorporate it into the daily life of humans it changes the way we think, operate, and function. Some say its a conveience, while others say it makes a lazy. I would say it does both depending on its dependency and how it is put to use. The majority of the technological use I see around me is the use of computers for school activities, the use of ipods and mp3’s for music listeners and the use of vehicles for transportation. While all these may be looked at as benefits, we also have to pay attention to how technology poses a threat, specifically to the privacy of the people. The greatest threat that technology poses is the replacement human produced actions, making the need for man power obsolete. An even deeper look into this would pose a threat of depopulation for the mass amounts of “un-needed” human life. Deep, but real! As far as literacy goes, the use of technology has been incorporated into communication of the human race. Communication is changing as we know it. From cell phone use, text messages, email, social websites, etc., a great deal of our communication is being transmitted through technology.

My past experiences with peer workshops and peer reviews go back to my freshman year in English 111 and 112. In these classes, the majority of our paper editing  and drafting occurred in small groups. The nice thing about this class (English 112) and the peer workshops was that our class was held in Kohl hall and all of the students in the class were residents of Kohl. This allowed us to workshop with peers that we were already accustomed to, and more than likely friends with. I’ve always enjoyed peer workshops because it gives me a chance to receive input and constructive criticism without it being a grade and some comments. Peer workshops have always been something of beneficial value to me.

1. Pathos is the appeal to a person’s identity, self-interest, and emotions. Pathos appeal attempts to persuade people by perpetuating fear, pity, love, lust and other emotions that people are capable of feeling. 

2. An example of this appeal is a commercial from careerbuilder.com. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBl3FOKgs1A

In this video, a narrator speaks about hating a job, feeling disrespected, and wishing you were somewhere else. The narrator’s comments appeals to the audiences emotions uses these emotions to persuade people to visit their website to find a new job. 

3.  “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world…If you teach that nigger how to read there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable.” ……These words sunk deep into my heart. 

In this example the writer uses pathos to appeal to the emotions of the reader and bring some insight into how the slave felt after being talked about.

A literacy narrative should tell a story about an event or  time that played an important role in a person’s development of literacy. A good one will have will have a begginning, middle, and end. A good one will capture a specific time in one’s life and illustrate it well enough for it to be read as a story.

I think this quote simply illustrates a concept in which I’ve always thought to be fascinating. I think literacy development has always been a cycle. Take for instance what’s going on right now in the world with people’s literacy. I believe most people are becoming very computer literate and alot more of our thoughts and expressions are communicated via technology rather than through books, writing, and even talking. This didn’t just happen, but it sprang from our existing literacy. I read an article the other day that was about OSU’s medical school picking up the practice of teaching via ipods. Endeavors like this is what’s changing or “developing” a new literacy.