Victory Lap

Hi there,
I'm not sure if any of you guys will actually see this...but for my victory lap I wanted to include a picture of the most adorable dog that kept me company while I finished up this English Project.

Congrats to us for making it through the semester, and have a great break/ rest of your college career!!

Reflection on Open Letter Draft

In the following post I will be reflecting on the work I did for the Open Letter. I will also talk about how peer-editing helped me understand this project more.

Qedem1611. "Christmas Lights Colors Holidays Decoration Water" 6/11/2014 via Pixabay. CCO Public Domain. 

I peer-edited Ayra and Kelly's drafts of their open letters.

1. Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?
I think that through my draft I was in fact able to express my thoughts and feelings about myself as a writer and with the work that I am able to produce. I think that my draft did a good job of evaluating the good and bad aspects of my writing process.

2. Did you provide analysis of your experiences, writing assignments, or concepts you have learned?
Yes, I talked about the past writing projects we have completed this year, and I analyzed them to talk about what worked and what did not work for me. I also evaluated how helpful it was to learn about genres and what kind of impact they will have in the future.

3. Did you provide concrete examples from you own writing (either quotes from your writing or rich descriptions of your writing process)?
Yes, I included several hyperlinks to past blog posts that I have completed over the course of the semester.

4. Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective?
I tried to talk about why I made choices the way I did. One particular example is when I talked about how using outlines help me, especially the outline I made for Project 2.

5. Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process?
I used specific words that I thought we emphasized in class like genre and conventions. I also included the specific names we gave to the different types of writers that we could be.

Draft of Open Letter

In the following post I will point out the points I think my peer editors should look for while they read my letter.

PetarM. "Writing a letter" 2/25/2012 via Wikipedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0 License. 

HERE is my draft of my Open Letter.

Hi there,
In my draft I feel like I have successfully included what I needed in order to answer the prompt, however, I feel like overall it's not as detailed as I could have made it. I would love some help with where I could include more, and what type of examples would help make this letter more informative. Also, I'm not sure that I included enough examples in my letter body to help get the point across and answer the prompt, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

In the following post I will answer questions in order to reflect more on my writing process and how it has evolved over the course of the semester.

Koul, Anirudh. "London Bridge (Tower Bridge): Reflection on the River Thames"
 4/5/2009 via Flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0 License.  

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall? 
I think the biggest challenge that I have had to face this semester was finishing all my work on time. Especially since some of the deadlines were very extensive in the amount of work that needed to be completed it sometimes was difficult to make sure that I am able to produce work of good quality.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills? 
I reinforced that my time management skills are awful, but I think my writing and editorial skills are improving. For many of the writing projects I wrote many drafts and between each copy I made many changes that helped in producing a good final product.

3. What do you know about the concept of a 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer. 
A genre is a category of writing that dictates the format of the piece. The specific conventions of a genre refer to how the text is laid out, what type of visuals are present, etc. By knowing a genre and its corresponding conventions its possible to successfully write in a new genre.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
I think this class forced me to address my bad time management skills and to work on how to plan out a long term assignment so it gets done on time, and not at the last minute. Also, learning how to write in different genres will help as the writing I did in high school is guaranteed to be very different than the writing I will do in my engineering classes.

5. What was the most effective moment from this semester in 109H?
I think the most effective moment that I have had during this class was right after we turned in our first assignment. After we finished this assignment it allowed me to reflect on how much I had learned in such as short time.

Not only have I learned many different technologies like Blogger and Coggle, but I have also learned the conventions of different genres like blogs and QRGs.
  

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?

One of the least effective moments that I have had this semester was doing a Coogle for the rhetorical  analysis. I typically find mind maps and pre-writing useful, but this Coggle was about information that I didn't really need to focus on. 

Revisiting My Writing Process

In the following post I will reflect on how my writing process and time management skills have changed from this course.

LeMasney, John. "When in doubt, visit your library" 5/25/2015 via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0 License.  

Looking back on my original Writing Style post I realize I was way more optimistic than I should have been. I recognized that I was a procrastinator, but I assumed that I would be able to change this habit. However, I conclude that after my first semester as a college student I am still a procrastinator.

I also had hoped to become a heavy planner, and the original plan was to look at the deadlines on Sunday, and spread out the work throughout the week. This goal has been a little more successful, but I have not been able to space out my writing or assignments as much as I had hoped.

From this course, especially with the large workload that we have had to manage I see that while my time management skills still suck, I am a very motivated and focused student that will get the work done on time, even if it all gets pushed to the last minute.

I think this motivation is harder to teach than time management so I think the skills that I have will be useful for the future in my career.

Reflection on Project 3

In this post I will be reflecting on the public argument I created for Project 3. I will conduct my reflection by answering the questions posed in Writing Public Lives.

Simon. "Laos Tree Water Reflection Mirroring Southeast" 11/19/2011 via Pixabay.
CCO Public Domain/ FAQ License. 

1. What was specifically revised from one draft to another?
From my first draft to my second draft I made significant changes as I switched the type of argumentative paper I was writing. After writing my first draft I saw that my attempt at a causal argument was not effective, and after my conference I decided that an evaluative argument would be more effective.

2. Point to global changes: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?
Because I changed what type of paper I would be writing, my thesis changed from trying to identify the causes of fracking to establishing that fracking could be improved by changing how fracking is done.

3. What led you to these changes? A reconsideration of audience? A shift in purpose?
All of the changes that I made resulted from a shift in the purpose I wanted my paper to have. I shifted purpose because I decided that this new purpose would allow my argument to be more effective.

4. How do these changes affect your credibility as an author?
I think all of these changes, especially my change in purpose makes me more credible as an author because now I have an argument where I can give my own view/perspective on instead of just repeating someone else's view.

5. How will these changes better address the audience or venue?
I think these changes help me better reach my audience. Because I wrote for an environmental blog, all of the readers are already environmentalists to some degree, so they most likely have opinions on fracking before reading my post. So, I am presenting hopefully some new information that will interest them.

6. Point to local changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure and style?
I think between my drafts I did not change the sentence style or structure very much. Even though I made some dramatic changes to the type and purpose of my writing, I did not change my audience or where I wanted to publish.

7. How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?
I think my purpose is much clearer to my audience because now I am trying to present new information to my audience that will hopefully change their opinion on fracking instead of giving them information they most likely already know.

8. Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the particular genre in which you are writing?
No, the genre and publishing area did not change, so the conventions stayed the same.

9. Finally, how does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?
I think this project has made me realize that I prefer to analyze an existing concept, similar to the evaluation we did in project 3. I feel like this is an area where I am able to make a convincing argument.

Publishing Public Argument

In the post below I will provide a link to access the final draft of my Project 3: Public Argument and a reflection about my project 3.

Logan. "The End Book." 8/23/2010 via Wikipedia. Public Domain. 

HERE is a link to the final copy of Project 3: My Public Argument.

1. Mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience currently stands on the issue (before reading/watching/hearing your argument) below:

                                                           

←---------------------------------------------------X--|--------------------------------------------------------->

Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          disagree

2. Now mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience should be (after they've read/watched/heard your argument) below:

←-------------------------X---------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------->

Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          disagree

3. Check one (and only one) of the argument types below for your public argument:

         _______ My public argument establishes an original pro position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument establishes an original con position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument clarifies the causes for a problem that is being debated.

         _______ My public argument proposes a solution for a problem that is being debated.

         ___X___ My public argument positively evaluate a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm supporting).

         _______ My public argument openly refutes a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm refuting).

4. Briefly explain how your public argument doesn’t simply restate information from other sources, but provides original context and insight into the situation:

-I think I was able to make my argument different from what has already been written because I was able to include information from many different places as evidence in my argument. Also, because I researched the demographic of treehugger.com's viewers I learned that I am in the same generation as majority of their viewers. Therefore, I was able to appeal to them as I relate to them. 

5. Identify the specific rhetorical appeals you believe you've employed in your public argument below:
I tried to keep my argument logical by providing lots of evidence and information from studies. I also hyperlinked to all the different sources I used the links to show my audience that the information I included was credible. In addition to my logical appeals, I tried to appeal to the emotional side of my audience. I tried to make my reader's feel hopeful in the future of water-free fracking. 

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals

                    _____ Telling personal stories that establish a credible point-of-view

                    __X__ Referring to credible sources (established journalism, credentialed experts, etc.)

                    _____ Employing carefully chosen key words or phrases that demonstrate you are credible (proper terminology, strong but clear vocabulary, etc.)

                    __X__ Adopting a tone that is inviting and trustworthy rather than distancing or alienating

                    __X___ Arranging visual elements properly (not employing watermarked images, cropping images carefully, avoiding sloppy presentation)

                    __X__ Establishing your own public image in an inviting way (using an appropriate images of yourself, if you appear on camera dressing in a warm or friendly or professional manner, appearing against a background that’s welcoming or credibility-establishing)

                    _____ Sharing any personal expertise you may possess about the subject (your identity as a student in your discipline affords you some authority here)

                    _____ Openly acknowledging counterarguments and refuting them intelligently

                    __X__ Appealing openly to the values and beliefs shared by the audience (remember that the website/platform/YouTube channel your argument is designed for helps determine the kind of audience who will encounter your piece)

                    _____ Other: 

Emotional appeals

                    _____ Telling personal stories that create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Telling emotionally compelling narratives drawn from history and/or the current culture

                    _____ Employing the repetition of key words or phrases that create an appropriate emotional impact

                    __X__ Employing an appropriate level of formality for the subject matter (through appearance, formatting, style of language, etc.)

                    _____ Appropriate use of humor for subject matter, platform/website, audience

                    _____ Use of “shocking” statistics in order to underline a specific point

                    _____ Use of imagery to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Employing an attractive color palette that sets an appropriate emotional tone (no clashing or ‘ugly’ colors, no overuse of too many variant colors, etc.)

                    _____ Use of music to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Use of sound effects to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    __X_ Employing an engaging and appropriate tone of voice for the debate

                    _____ Other: 

Logical or rational appeals

                    _____ Using historical records from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns

                    _____ Using statistics from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns

                    _____ Using interviews from stakeholders that help affirm your stance or position

                    _____ Using expert opinions that help affirm your stance or position

                    _____ Effective organization of elements, images, text, etc.

                    _____ Clear transitions between different sections of the argument (by using title cards, interstitial music, voice over, etc.)

                    _____ Crafted sequencing of images/text/content in order to make linear arguments

                    _____ Intentional emphasis on specific images/text/content in order to strengthen argument

                    _____ Careful design of size/color relationships between objects to effectively direct the viewer’s attention/gaze (for visual arguments)

                    __X__ Other: Using recent and relevant studies as evidence.

Examples of my genre:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

Here I will reflect on the peer editing I received on my draft of project 3.

OpenClipartVectors. "Write Pencil Paper Blank Draft Writing Office" 11/15/2013 via Pixabay.
CCO Public Domain/ FAQ License.  

I peer reviewed Morgan and Kelly's Project 3 drafts.

1. Who reviewed your Project 3 Draft?
Savannah reviewed my draft.

2. What did you think and/or feel about the feedback you received?
I thought Savannah gave a lot of feedback and I was really grateful for that. She gave me a lot of examples of where I could improve my argument and that was really helpful for me to see. I think she was very objective in her comments, and it was really nice to see a peer edit that was more here this is what needs to be fixed, than just saying it was okay.

3. What aspects of your Project 3 need the most work going forward?
I think like Savannah pointed out the biggest things I need to work on for my draft going forward is providing more commentary, and making the commentary and examples I include more effective but targeting my audience more. I also think the conventions of my argument could be more emphasized, especially comparing my draft to the drafts I peer edited, I can add a lot more and make my draft look like it belongs on a blog.

4. How are you feeling overall about the direction of your project after peer review and/or instructor conferences this week?
I think the instructor conference helped a lot. A lot of the feedback I got on my draft mentioned the issues that I was having with my draft, like what kind of commentary I should include. After the conference I have a different angle to take with my argument, and I think with this new angle I have a lot more I can include in the commentary.

Project 3 Draft

In this post I will include a link to my Project 3 Draft. This is a very ROUGH draft of my final project.

o5com. "Men Arguing" 8/25/2010 via Flickr. CC BY 2.0 License. 

What I want my peer editors to look for.

• Because I am writing my argument as a blog post, I know I have to keep my paragraphs brief, and concise. However, I feel like I am not providing enough information. Any suggestion would be appreciated. 
• I am also worried that the small paragraphs I'm writing are making the essay too choppy. 

Here is a link to my Project 3 Draft: My Public Argument.

Considering Visual Elements

In the following post I will reflect on questions from the Writing Public Lives regarding the visual elements that I will include in my text.

Erb, Conrad. "Periodic Table Elements Cupcakes" 10/2/2011 via Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0 License. 

How might I vary the fonts used in my project for emphasis, such as in the title and body of my project?
I might try to use different fonts to present the examples and in my commentary on the evidence. I think this would make it distinct what I added and what is evidence.

If my project uses text boxes to break up the text of my argument, do the text boxes effectively draw my audience's attention to the most important points of my argument?
Because I am writing a blog, I might use a text box to include a quote, I think it was called a "pull quote" (but I could be wrong). I think this would help emphasize what I consider to be an important piece of text.

Is the feeling or tone that the image invokes appropriate to the visual rhetorical tone of my argument?
I think I will include pictures in my argument. One example of a picture I for sure want to include is a picture of the "flammable water" I think this will help me in my ethos appeal. So, for me using ethos to appeal to my audience is appropriate because I am trying to get them to care so they are motivated to do something.

Does the image inform or emphasize my argument in an important way, or does it seem superficial or unrelated to my argument?
I think the images I want to include will help my emphasis in an important way because they are showing the audience how serious the issue is.

If you are using design elements such as lines and section headings, do they create clear transitions from each major point in your argument?
Because a blog is made up of many, typically, shorter chunks of text I think the lines between the text will help make clear transitions
.
Scan your public argument or your outline. Do your eyes move easily from section to section in the order that you intended?
I think because I am writing in a blog post with small chunks of text separated with spaces, it will help make it easy for the reader's eyes to navigate.

Reflection: 
After reading Trey and Kyle's posts about the visual elements I realized how important the visual elements can be to the specific genre. Especially because Kyle's style is so different from mine, it was interesting to see how varied the conventions are. He is writing an academic styled paper, and if he used conventions like mine, I think it would hurt his credibility and his argument.

Trey on the other hand has a genre very similar to mine, where short paragraphs and very little visuals are used. I think these conventions are the most effective because anything more ruins the scan-ability of the text.

Project 3 Outline

In the following post I will be providing a rough outline for my Project 3 paper.

Italian-Pitbull. "Canaan Dog Female Lineart" 3/18/2015 via Deviantart.com. CC BY 3.0 License. 

Introduction:

1. Background on why the demand for natural gas has increased recently. 
2. Define what fracking is. 
3. State opinion: fracking is harmful to the environment. 
4. Explain why fracking is important to them--the state of the environment is our problem (college students) and the problems of our children and their children and so on. 

Main Body 

1. Major Supporting Arguments. 
1. Fracking causes large methane emissions.
2. Fracking leads to water contamination.
3. Fracking causes things like Earthquakes.
2. Major Criticisms. 
1. Natural gas is a cleaner burn product than gas/oil. 
3. Key Support and Rebuttal Points.
1. The three points under "Major Supporting Arguments." 
4. Tentative Topic Sentence.
1. While fracking produces natural gas, a cleaner-burn alternative to oil, it also produces high levels of methane emissions, a very efficient greenhouse gas. 
2. Not only does fracking leach toxins into the atmosphere, but fracking contributes to contaminated ground water. 
3. Forcing highly pressurized water underground is bound to have consequences, and fracking has been linked to earthquakes in fracking sites. 
5. Gather Evidence.
1. Methane Emissions 
1. Methane Emissions in Texas are 50% higher than estimated. 
2. Ingraffea and Howarth talk about methane emissions 
2. Contaminated Ground Water
1. GreenPeace
2. Flammable water 
3. Earthquakes 
1. Man-made earthquakes 
2. Earthquakes caused by the water disposal not fracking process 
6. Map Out the Argument. 
1. Fracking causes large amounts of methane to be released into the atmosphere. 
1. evidence 1- elevated levels of methane in Texas
1. commentary- why methane emissions are so harmful
1. very strong greenhouse gas, and the increased levels of methane may cancel out the "clean-burn" properties of natural gas 
2. evidence 2- Ingraffea and Howarth talk about methane  
1. commentary on the speakers credentials
1. Ingraffea has experience in the field.  
2. Fracking and its related processes can lead to groundwater contamination. 
1. evidence 1- contamination of water Pennsylvania 
1. commentary-what types of chemicals are leaching into the water
2. how the water is being contaminated 
2. evidence 2- flammable water
1. commentary- water is being tainted with methane 
2. how is the water being contaminated
3. health effects if people were to drink the tainted water
3. Earthquakes 
1. evidence 1- man-made earthquakes
2. evidence 2- earthquakes caused by water disposal not fracking process
1. how fracking causes these earthquakes
1. connection to fault lines
2. frequency of the earthquakes
3. where the earthquakes are occurring

Conclusion 

Call to action--in the introduction I pointed out to my audience how this issue affects them, and after I have explained the issue to them I can tell them what they can do to act on it. 

Analyzing My Genre

In this post I will be providing links to example texts from my genre. I have decided to write my argument as a blog post, and below are examples of blog posts from the platform I wish to use, treehugger.com. Because I am not sure which type of public argument I will be writing in, I used my examples to show that the blog genre will support multiple types of arguments.

Hashimoto, Jayni. "Treehugger.com" 11/7/15 via Screenshot. 

Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5

Social Context

• Where is your genre typically set?
• My genre is blog posts. As a result the genre is set online. 
• What is the subject of the genre?
• I think because anyone can write a blog, the subjects can be about anything. But I think the people who write blogs do so to share an opinion or educate people so blogs tend to be more informative and biased. 
• Who uses the genre?
• Because this is an online genre, I think the audience tends to be younger people who are more technologically savvy. I also think because there are so many blogs out there the people who read the blogs tend to be more interested in the topic, because they had to find it. 
• When and why is the genre used? What purposes does the genre serve for the people who use it?
• I think this genre is used to share opinions about things, in particular specific events that occur. So this genre is used by writers to share their thoughts and feelings about things like when GM announced that the Chevy Bolt would be sold in all 50 states.  

Rhetorical Patterns of the Genre

• What type of context is usually included and excluded?
• Content that is typically found in blogs posts includes: background information, relevant facts to back up the author's claim, and an opinion on the topic. However, blogs tend to exclude very technical words and vocab. 
• What rhetorical appeals are used most often? Do you notice any patterns in the appeals to logos, pathos, or ethos?
• I think blogs tend to utilize ethos and logos the most. Blogs are usually on the shorter side, so they have to make an impact in a shorter amount of time. I feel like these are the easiest ways to get the reader to interact with the text. 
• How are the texts organized? Do they generally open in similar ways? What common parts do the samples share?
• Blogs are typically opened with a "lead," or a short summary of the rest of the text. They are typically organized with subheadings or shorter chunks of text. 
• Do sentences in the genre share a certain style? Are they mostly active, passive, simple, or complex? Is there an abundance or lack of questions, exclamation points, or semi-colons?
• I think sentences in the blog genre are often written as simple and active sentences. They do not include a lot of questions, as they are usually used to provide information to the audience, not question them. 
• What type of word choice is used? Do many of the words fit in a particular category of jargon or slang? Is the overall effect of the word choice formal, informal, humorous, or academic?
• I think blogs are definitely informal. The word choice may include some slang, depending on the subject of the particular blog, but overall blogs exclude a lot of technical jargon. 

Analyze What those Patterns Reveal about the Social Context of the Genre

• Who does the genre include and who does it exclude?
• I think one of the great things about blogs is they are so accessible, and as a result while they may have specific targets, they don't necessarily exclude readers. I think the biggest deterrent to readers is that blogs are online, so the reader has to be able to access them. 
• What roles for writers and readers does the genre encourage?
• Blogs typically encourage a relationship between the reader and the writer. Because they are typically equipped with the ability to comment, the writer is encouraging the readers to contribute to the discussion. 
• What values and beliefs are assumed about or encouraged from users of the genre?
• I think blogs assume that the reader has some interest in the subject matter being discussed because the reader had to do something to find the blog. Like, above I think the genre encourages the users to get involved in the discussion. 
• What context does the genre treat as most valuable? Least valuable? 
• I think the genre treats its accessibility as one of the most important things. Because it is such an easy way for people to get information about a topic, they make sure to not bog down the information with formalities or technical jargon. 

Reflection:

After reading Dylan and Alyssa's posts I realize that even though we are all writing in slightly different genres, they share a lot of similarities. For example, they all of the genres appeal to a very large group of people, and they aren't very exclusive in who views/reads them. Also, it seems like all of our genres tend to be very informal, which explains why our genres are so easy to read. 

Considering Types

In this post I will describe what types of argumentative styles work the best for me to use in my public argument. I will be talking about the five specific types listed in the Writing Public Lives textbook.

Alcinoe~commonswiki. "Cookie Cutters" 2/15/2005 via Wikipedia Commons.
 Public Domain License.  

For my project I think the casual argument or the position argument would be the most effective way for me to argue my controversy. 

Casual Argument 

With the causal argument I can take a single, specific side and argue in favor or against just this one side. Because my topic has two main sides it would be easy for me to pick one to write about, and it would be easy for my audience to understand what I am arguing for. 

Because the goal of my argument is to educate the audience and hopefully get them to care about the issue, my pointing out the cause, but not a specific solution the reader's can reflect on the issue and hopefully find a solution themselves. 

Position Argument: 

Like I said above my issue has only two main sides when focusing on only the environmental effects. Because the number of view points is so limited I can easily find clear evidence to support my particular position. 

I would be able to target my stance towards my particular audience. Because I am writing for college students I would make my argument appeal towards the college students so that they are more likely to believe the information I provide.

Reflection: 
Alyssa's Rhetorical Action Plan  and Considering Types.  AND Brandon's Rhetorical Action Plan and Considering Types.

After reading the above posts from my classmates I feel more confident in the genre and argument style I chose. Like Brandon I will be including a decent bit of technical information in my argument, this is the evidence for my claim, and in order to prove the dense, factual information I think a QRG or a blog would be the most effective. It allows for me to provide good, detailed information while still making it easy for the reader to digest. Similar to Alyssa I want my argument to not change the opinions of my readers, but get them to consider the other sides of the controversy. Therefore, like her I think the casual argument will be the most effective argument type. 

My Rhetorical Action Plan

In the following blog post I will address how I will manage the rhetoric of my text. I will look at the three components, audience, genre, and responses/action by answering the questions from Writing Public Lives. 

Y., Nick. "Action Plan" 7/2015 via PicServer. CC BY-SA 3.0 License.  

Audience: 

• Knowledge: I am assuming that my audience is made up of non-environmental studies major students. Therefore the knowledge they have on the subject I expect to be little to none especially in the technical specifics. The information they would have about fracking I expect they got from big news stories, and because of the nature of the stories that make the news I anticipate the information they have made them on the slightly more anti-fracking side. 

• Values: I think my audience believes in what they've been told. Natural gas is a cleaner-burn energy source than something like coal, but they have not been told of all of the negatives that fracking can causes unintentionally. Also, I think most college kids are environmentally conscious, but to varying degrees.

• Standards of Argument: The best statistics I can provide for my audience would be very current numbers that show long-term trends. I am writing for millennials, and we are very invested more in what affects us than in the past or future. Also, the long-term statistics show what will happen to us now and in the future, which is more relevant for this generation.

• Visual Elements: I think visual elements like charts, to show a large group of data quickly, and relevant emotion-causing pictures will be the most helpful.   

• Purpose: The purpose of my argument is to educate my audience on a topic they might be familiar with, but not experts. I am not trying to use my argument to motivate my audience to act a certain way, just to understand the different sides of the fracking issue. 

Genre: 
Examples of the blog genre that would appeal to college students. Boing Boing and TreeHugger. Another possible genre I could write in would be a QRG. A few examples of QRGs are this one about the world series  (go Royals) and this one about time management.

• Function: The function of the blog genre would be to give relevant information quickly, while keeping it interesting to hold the reader's attention. Similarly, the QRG would present the information to the audience in a straight forward and easy way, but would provide more information than a blog post.

• Setting: The setting of my genre is online. Its made to be easily accessible and easy to digest. I could see it being used on popular social media sites. 

• Rhetorical Appeals: I think because the most useful rhetorical appeal for me would be to use ethos. The biggest challenge I have to face is to make my audience care about a subject that they may have no current interest in. 

• Visual Elements: I think  I will utilize visual images. Like I stated above, I think the most useful visual aids would be ones that can provide a lot of information quickly and ones that will generate a lot of emotion.  

• Style: The most effective style for me will be an informal style that excludes a lot of technical jargon and doesn't turn the audience off by feeling overly pretentious. 

Responses/Action: 

I am not really looking for my audience to take any big actions after they read my argument, but I would like them to be better educated than they were prior to reading my text and to be more conscious of the environment. 

Positive Reactions:

1. After reading my argument my audience could share it to help me reach a larger group of My people. 
2. My audience could get involved with my post, because it will be in a public place, and they could comment. 
3. The audience could take what they learned from my argument and make their own blog posts or social media comment. 

Negative Reactions:

1. Comments are a double-edged sword, so my audience could get involved and leave negative comments on whatever platform I use to publish my article. 
2. My audience could complete ignore all of the content I provided. 
3. After reading my text the audience could write their own blog post/QRG with the intent to completely discredit mine. 

Analyzing Purpose

In this post I will include information that I brainstormed for information that I could include in my public argument.

Mangold, Andy. "Brainstorm" 3/23/2010 via Flickr. CC BY 2.0 License.  

Goal: 
The goal of my writing would be to educate my readers. Everyone uses electricity and energy whether or not its developed through coal plants or solar panels or natural gas plants. Because I am targeting college students, I want to inform them of where there energy is coming from and at what costs.

Plausible Reactions/Actions and Non-plausible Reactions/Actions:
A very implausible reaction that my argument could cause would be for the readers to go and stop an active fracking site. A slightly more plausible, but unlikely reaction would be for the readers to form a protest at their various campuses.

A more likely scenario would be for my argument to educate my audience so when they go to vote, as college students are usually of legal age to vote, would vote on the issues of fracking. Or if the argument really inspires them, they could petition their congressmen demanding change--but that's starting to get very unlikely.

Likely Consequences: 
Because my audience is college students, I would write my argument in some form of social medial where they would have easy access to it. Because of the nature of social media, the most likely response to my text would either be to read it and close the window or share it if they felt really strongly about what I wrote.

Sharing my article is the best case scenario, its still a pretty low impact consequence. Therefore, from my text the best I can hope for is to educate more of my generation on this topic, and hopefully raise the awareness of the environment.

Audience: 
Like I wrote above the audience for my piece is college students, especially those not involved in environmental studies and engineering fields. I think with this field I can really achieve my goal of trying to educate the readers with a basic, fundamental idea of what fracking is and how it is affecting the environment.

Analyzing Context

In the following post I will answer questions regarding the big picture of my controversy.

Hoekwater, Taco. "The Unofficial ConTeXt logo" 4/22/2009 via Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0 License. 

1. What are the key perspectives or schools of thought on the debate that you are studying?
1. With fracking the major schools of thought are that fracking is bad for the environment and that fracking is good for the environment because the natural gas collected is a cleaner burn energy than regular fossil fuels. 
2. What are the major points of contention or major disagreements among these perspectives?
1. The major points of disagreement between the two perspectives are what causes a bigger and worse impact on the environment. The pro-fracking side believes that the burning of fossil fuels causes the worst consequences for the environment where the side against fracking believes that the worst consequences stem from the fracking process. 
3. What are the possible points of agreement, or the possible common ground between these perspectives?
1. One possible point of agreement between the arguments is that both groups genuinely want a solution that will help the environment, the two sides just disagree on what would cause the best outcome for the environment. 
4. What are the ideological differences, if any, between the perspectives? 
1. The ideological differences could be what side of the political spectrum they associate with. The anti-fracking sides tends to be more liberal, whereas the side that supports fracking is by default more conservative. 
5. What specific actions do their perspectives or texts ask their audience to take?
1. The texts from both perspectives prompt their audiences to be more aware of the actions than to take action to fix the problem. 
6. What perspectives are useful in supporting you own arguments about the issue? Why did you choose these?
1. Perspectives that would be useful to help me support my argument are the perspectives that I know my audience will have. Because I will be targeting my text towards college students I have to make them care about my argument, by making the argument relevant to what they view. 
7. What perspectives do you think will be the greatest threat to your argument? Why so?
1. I think the biggest obstacle I will have to face is readers who have the perspective where they don't care about the fracking issue at all.  

Reflection: 

After reading Dylan and Savannah's blog posts where they analyzed the content of their controversies I realized that the topic of the argument plays a huge role in the context of the debate. 

For example, Savannah is also writing about a scientific topic and I found that like me her argument was very clear cut, with two distinct sides to the discussion. The articles about her topic were also like mine where they didn't explicitly prompt the reader to take action, they more wanted to inform the reader than rally a protest. 

However, Dylan's topic was different from mine as it was outside of the scientific field. His argument looked at the different types of film, which could be argued to be more subjective. Because of the nature of his subject personal stories appear to be very helpful to use as evidence whereas scientific fact is easier for me to use and make a convincing argument. 

Audience and Genre

In the following post I will talk about the specific audiences who would be interested in my argumentative piece about fracking.

Forsyth, Ellen. "Fiction/genre sign-Burton Barr Central Library, Phoenix Public Library"
6/4/2011 via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0 License.  

1. Audience--Schlumberger 
Schlumberger is a large company involved in the fracking process. They basically cover all of the fracking process minus the sale of the extracted natural gas. Because they are the ones to collect the gas they would want to hear about the effects so they can improve their processes, if possible, to maximize their profits and avoid getting sued and bad press.

• A popular blog may gather this company's attention if my blog post were to gather enough momentum in social media. One possible blog could be Yale Environment 360  or  Mother Jones: Blue Marble. Both of these blogs have been ranked in the top 10 environmental blogs. 
• An example of a blog post I would write here would be this or this. Because I would be writing for a blog, I would want to write my argument in a blog format, like the examples above.

2. Audience--American Council on Renewable Energy

The American Council on Renewable Energy is a non-profit organization that works about trying to organize people involved in renewable energy. An organization like this one would be good to reach to propose that natural gas is still a viable source of renewable energy, just with some modifications.

• A possible publication source for me would be on YouTube. I think because the organization is looking more for companies and established people in the field, my best bet to be noticed would be to go "viral" and gather lots of attention. Therefore, YouTube would be the perfect platform to have a video gain lots of views. A couple of YouTube channels that could be a good place to publish would be GreenPeaceUSA  and FriendsoftheEarth. 
• A couple of examples of videos that I could make would be video 1 and video 2.

Reflection on Project 2

In this post I will reflect on what occurred as I revised my Project 2 paper from draft to draft. In order to reflect on my revision process I will be answering questions from Writing Public Lives.

jill111. "Christmas Cookies Cookies Christmas Christmas Baking"
2/ 21/2015 via Pixabay. CCO Public Domain/ FAQ License. 

1. 
   What was specifically revised from draft to draft?
1. I think the biggest thing I revised from my first draft to the final was my introduction and conclusion. With my first introduction I had the wrong focus, and the conclusion was nonexistent. 
2. Point to global changes: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?
1. With my thesis I had to reconsider how specific to make it. The first couple drafts of thesis-es I made were much to broad and did not mention the pieces of the rhetorical situation.  
3. What led you to these changes? Reconsideration of author or purpose?
1. Once I figured out what the purpose was that really dictated what I changed. For example, once I separated what the purpose of the entire essay was I changed my entire introduction paragraph.  
4. How do these changes affect your credibility as an author?
1. I think these changes made my credibility better. Once I changed my thesis to be more specific I think it drastically improved how on topic I stayed in my essay which makes me seem like a more credible author. 
5. How will these changes better address the audience or venue?
1. The new introduction addresses the audience by actually recognizing the rhetorical situation of my essay. Meaning--I actually mentioned the right audience. 
6. Point to logical changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure or style?
1. The biggest change in style that I made came after I identified my audience. Once I identified future chemical engineers as my audience it allowed me to connect with my audience more, since we have some common ground and it let me write my intro and conclusion a little more informative than just stuffing it full of background information. 
7. How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?
1. My new introduction actually introduces the topic of the essay instead of the subject of the article. I think once I explicitly stated why I was writing what I was writing and the importance of the analysis, it made it a lot clearer for the audience. 
8. Did you have to reconsider the convention of the particular genre in which you were writing?
1. Yes. Since we have been writing so much this year in different genres like the QRG and blog posts, the first draft I completely forgot citations and that paragraphs could be longer than like five sentences. 
9. Finally, how does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?
1. I think as I write I do a lot of reflecting, therefore for me sitting down at the end doesn't help me as much. But, I think through all of my reflection I decided that with my writing style I prefer to have a strong outline and heavy revision. These strategies made the writing easier for me. 

Reflection 

After reading Mehruba and Brandon's reflection on project 2 I found some similarities between myself and my classmates. Mehruba and I both completely revised our intro and conclusion paragraphs between the drafts. I've always thought these are the hardest paragraphs to write, and it was nice to see that some of my classmates also changed the direction they wanted their intros to go. 

With Brandon, we shared some ideas about how having a specific audience makes it a little easier to give context than with a broad audience. However, I was a little jealous to read that when it came to writing the essay he remembered all the genre components. I definitely felt a little out of practice when it came to citations and long paragraphs. 

Extended Annotate Bibliography

In this post I will present my annotated bibliography for my Project 3 research piece. I will include my sources which helped my answer some of the questions I posed in my "Questions about Controversy" post.

Ann Arbor District Library. "Stack of Books"
2/23/2012 via Flickr. CC-BY-NC 2.0 License. 

1. Marshall, Peter. How Fracking Affects a Community in Pennsylvania, 2011. BBC News. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-15919248. (accessed 10/23/15).

This article from the BBC News website gives the first hand experience from Peter Marshall as he ventured to Bradford County to talk to the locals. He asked them about their experiences since the fracking companies moved into the area. The locals talked about the health problems they've had since the industry came to town. While this source did not give a timeline from how soon the locals experienced health complications, it provides a list of health problems that did arise in the county.

2. Borenstein, Seth. Contaminated Water Caused by Leaky Wells, Not Fracking Process, Study Says, 2014. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/15/contaminated-water-fracking_n_5822652.html. (accessed 10/23/15).

In this post, like the title suggests, the source of water contamination is explained to be a result of the wells not the fracking process. Having a source that identifies where the health concerns are coming form is crucial for writing an essay about the effects of fracking. This source will help me answer my question regarding where in the fracking process the major issue is originating.

3. McFarlane, Greg. Why Schlumberger Is a Name You Should Know, 2014. Investopedia. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/080814/why-schlumberger-name-you-should-know.asp. (accessed 10/23/15).

This post addresses how a company like Schlumberger has become as big as it is in the natural gas industry. It talks about what part of the gas collection process Schlumberger is involved with and how the company has maintained its success. This article helps me to identify who some of the big companies involved with fracking are, which was one of the questions I posed in a previous blog post.

4. Popular Mechanics. Is Fracking Safe? The 10 Most Controversial Claims About Natural Gas Drilling, 2015. Popular Mechanics. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/g161/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593/. (accessed 10/23/15).

Again the name of the article is very self-explanatory, but the article addresses some of the big misconceptions about hydraulic fracking. In particular misconception number four talks about how unrealistic it is for the fracking fluid to contaminate the underground water. In combination with the article in resource two, helps to contextualize where the major issue with fracking is.

Narrowing My Focus

In the following blog post I will present a few of my favorite questions I created in the previous post and explain why I like these questions. I will also describe how these questions are going to help me create my own public argument.

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Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Internation License. 

1. How are the opponents spreading the news of the negative effects of fracking?

I think this question is incredibly important for me to answer before I being working on my public argument because it tells me where to write my piece. If I want to add to the current debate I need to publish my piece in a place that is relevant to the existing discussion. Therefore, once I address where other parties are taking the discussion I can write my argumentative piece in that location so it will be seen.

2. When did the first community experience health issues from fracking?

For my public argument one possible avenue I can write about is the types of health issues that resulted from fracking in different communities. Whether these health issues originated from contaminated water or reduced air quality levels I think I could add a new perspective in the field this way.

Project 2 Final Draft

Here is the final version on my rhetorical analysis for Project 2. While not all of my readers who will open this document are newbies in the field of Chemical Engineering, I hope you all get to play ChemE for a little, and enjoy this guide to analyzing articles in the Chemical Engineering field.

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CC-BY-SA-3.0-MIGRATED License. 

Here is the link to my rhetorical analysis.

Questions About Controversy

In the following post I will being developing questions that I can use while I develop a public argument of my own. These questions will help me to create a new perspective on my controversy that I can use to add to the current argument. 

Linforth, Pete. "Question Mark Symbol Box Cube Sign Ask Help 3d"
3/22/2015 via Pixabay. CCO Public Domain/ FAQ License. 

WHO?

Who are the big fracking companies? Who are the specific environmental groups that are fighting against fracking? Who are the communities that are being affected by the fracking?

WHAT?

What is the bigger fight the process as a whole or the way its currently being carried out? What does the data show about fracking lowering carbon dioxide emissions? How much methane is escaping during the fracking process?

WHEN?

When did the first community experience health issues from fracking? When do the negative effects from fracking appear after the drills have been dug and used? When was the first big push against fracking?

WHERE?

Where in the fracking process is the major complaint originating? Where are the effects from fracking being felt the most? Where are the possible solutions coming from?

HOW?

How are the opponents spreading news of the negative effects of fracking? How are the fracking companies defending themselves? How is the general public involved in the debate (what social media platform are they using)?

Punctuation, Part 2

In the following post I will reflect on three more punctuation topics as discussed in the textbook, Rules for Writers. As grammar is not a strong suit of mine, I will then discuss how I used the punctuation topics to self-edit my draft of Project 2.

ZIPNON. "Punctuation Symbols 3d Rainbow Gradient Bright"
6/21/2015 via Pixabay. CCO Public Domain/ FAQ License.

Quotation Marks 
For me, quotation marks around quotes was something I learned a long time ago, therefore it was always second nature to include them. However, what to use with quotation marks was never really emphasized. For example, I did not know that a formal introduction to a quote was pared with a colon, or that colon and semicolons went outside of the quotation marks.

Also, with MLA in-text citations, I was never sure if the period was included after the citation when the quote had a question mark or exclamation mark-it is.

One example from my text is:
Ingraffea explained his qualification in the oil and gas industry in his interview by saying, “I spent 20, 25 years working with the oil and gas industry...helping them to figure out how best to get oil and gas out of rock.” 3
          To introduce the quote I used a phrase similar to "he said" like in Rules for Writers" so I used a           comma after my introductory phrase. Also, I included a period in the quotation marks and                   followed the quotation marks with my citation.

End Punctuation 
End punctuation, like its name suggests, is the type of punctuation found at the end of the sentence. I was happy to finally have it clarified that if an abbreviation is found at the end of a sentence there is only one period at the end. Also, multiple question marks can be used in a list even with incomplete sentences.

Other Punctuation Marks 
One thing that I found surprising was in quotations when a full sentence is removed from the quote this is signified with more than an ellipse, it is shown with a period before the ellipse so four periods in a row.

Another punctuation rule that was new to me was using dashes to separate nouns or noun phrase that that include commas. The dashes can show the importance of the appositive, so the phrase is not confused with the other commas.

One example from my text: 
And now the reason I bring it up in the context of politics is that the right, the political right uses this as a central case study for liberals getting science wrong...And
While revising I searched my quotes to see if I omitted a full sentence. Because I did not remove a full sentence, just fragments, I used regular ellipses instead of ellipses preceded by a period.

Copy for Paragraph Analysis 2

In this post I will analyze how well I have put my paragraphs together. I am looking specifically at the fluidity of the paragraphs between each other and within the individual paragraphs. Also, I am inspecting how on topic my paragraphs were and how I developed the topic. Here is a link to my copy for paragraph analysis.

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3/16/2015 via Pixabay. CCO Public Domain/ FAQ License. 

Focus on a Main Point
I think my paragraphs did a good job of identifying a single main point. For the most part I think my paragraphs also did a good job of sticking to the main idea. However, I did find in some of my paragraphs the reasoning I used to develop the main point was what pulled the paragraph off topic. Therefore, I think it would be beneficial for me to rewrite my paragraphs and making my developing information more concise.

Develops the Main Point 
I think I touched on this above, but my paragraphs did a good job of developing the main point, but they took a very roundabout way to get to the point. When I make my paragraphs more concise I think it will help how my main point is developed in addition to making my paragraphs more focused.

Organizes Itself Internally
While the structure of the paragraph follows no real plan, I think the organization of the paragraphs makes sense in terms of how the information is presented. In particular, the paragraph regarding the credibility of the author was a long description of his background in order to conclude that as a result of his background the stance he took made him more credible. With this paragraph I used both the description organization and the cause and effect structure.

Links Ideas Coherently 
I think within the paragraphs there is enough transitions between the sentences to where the paragraph does flow. In addition to the transitions, I think the sentences were worded to where adjacent sentences connected.

Provides Smooth Transitions 
This is definitely the area where I struggled the most. I felt like the jumps between my paragraphs are kinda awkward and don't flow as smoothly into one another as they could. Therefore, to fix this transition problem I will try to work in some information from the preceding paragraph into the introduction of the next paragraph, and I believe this will help me move smoothly between ideas.

Revised Conclusion

In this post I will include a link to my essay with the conclusion paragraph I have revised. Because I did not write a conclusion paragraph for my original draft, I have only included one link and this paragraph is definitely an improvement from my original conclusion paragraph. In my conclusion paragraph I tried to apply the "So What" approach. I think this conclusion paragraph is still very rough, but it still heads in the direction where I think the conclusion should end up.

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CC BY-SA 2.0 License. 

Revised Conclusion:

The text written by Chris Mooney, “Why the Scientific Case Against Fracking Keeps Getting Stronger,” has been evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the article’s argument. The argument presented is targeted towards political environmentalists and for its specific audience the text provides a very compelling argument. While the text utilizes some rhetoric strategies it still present an article that remains relatively unbiased. Because of the lack of bias this article has become a source that can influence someone like an engineer without having to worry about a conflict of ethics.