Presentations

Jocular behavior and opinionated arguments were less effective than arguments solely based on fact and sources. In addition, large walls of text are not very effective. Instead of getting the audience to read the argument while listening to the presenter ramble on, the presenter should save the large wall of text for his oral presentation, This causes the argument to be more effective and helps the audience focus on one thing at a time.

Keep it simple! Elaborate themes and cluttered slides with little to no alignment or organization make the presentation look unofficial and unprofessional. Also, presenters should practice their arguments before they present them, because stuttering and drawing a blank makes the audience feel like the topic at hand is not very important to the presenter.
When a presenter appears passionate and knowledgeable about their topic and backs up their argument with valid sources, facts, and statistics, the argument being made becomes very effective.

Interest in Cars

Recently, I bought my first car. With little knowledge about cars, I decided to purchase a 2002 V6 Mustang 5 Speed Manual with 180,000 miles. It was in need of repair in several places, but I decided it would be fun to make some small repairs. Two months later, I'm still fixing the car. It runs fine, but there are several small things that need to be fixed.

One thing you do when making car repairs is learn. You learn a lot about cars. I now know almost all there is to know (without being a mechanical engineer) about the fundamental parts of a car. From the power windows, all the way down to how the pistons drive the crankshaft. Along the way of making repairs, if there was ever a concept I didn't understand, I would search up how the concept worked and learn something new. Looking back, I didn't put enough thought into buying my new car. I should have looked around more, considered spending extra money on a V8, and negotiated the price to favor myself more than I did. I look at buying this car as a good learning experience. I am now a knowledgeable DIYer and car enthusiast who will, when buying a new car in the future, know what aspects I'm looking for and what is worth my money.
I decided to write about cars because we often see all these new cars with the incentive to save gas. I think that's a fantastic thing, but at the same time, it scares me. "How could you be scared of saving the environment?" you may ask. Well, I'm not scared of saving the environment, but I am scared of what this means for the future of cars. Cars may soon be one in the same with the largest engine available being a V6. While I think it's important to save the environment, I also think automakers are making great leaps in the fuel efficiency of their engines, so if anything is going to deplete the world of its oil resources at an alarming rate, it won't be the auto industry.

Toulmin v Rogerian

Rogerian:
With more and more students taking online courses, both the students and colleges benefit. For example, with students being able to take more classes online, the colleges can admit more students to their school. This benefits colleges because they get more money for better resources, and it benefits students because more students can be accepted. However, online education has some drawbacks. For instance, students can breeze through classes without studying at all by searching for the answers on the internet during tests and quizzes. In addition, students can't be put in one on one scenarios with their teachers where they can ask questions. These problems could be easily solved. First, you could make it so that tests were administered in a classroom instead of online. Second, students could be given an opportunity once a week to visit their professor who is administering the course in order to ask important questions.

Toulmin:
Many colleges have instituted online education programs. These programs are the best way to teach core curriculum. If colleges are going to meet the rising demand for education, they must teach core classes online in order to prevent overcrowding of lecture halls. The online course I took provided me with the opportunity to learn what I needed to learn to get through my core classes with hundreds of other students before I moved on to my specific major where I got more one on one time with my professor. Having online college classes to help students complete their first years of college benefits students and colleges by allowing colleges to admit more students and by allowing students to have a more flexible schedule.

Electric Vehicles vs Combustion Vehicles

Oil is an unrenewable resource that we are running out of. Many people are aware of this, and many people would like to fix this issue. The problem, however, is that electric vehicles don't have long enough ranges of travel, are relatively expensive, and don't appeal to a substantial amount of automotive consumers.

In an article titled "Gas-Electric Hybrids and Electric Cars Will Transform the Car Industry in America," the co-authors state that, if we can find a clean, minimal emission way to create electricity to charge our cars, we can dramatically decrease greenhouse gas emissions. This point does come with the caveat that we first need to make all electric grids in America more friendly to the environment; a costly and compromising task.

Another article titled "Driving an Electric Car Reduces Carbon Emissions and Fuel Costs," introduces the idea of delivery trucks for shipping companies using a hybrid truck that gets approximately 100 miles per gallon in order to save companies gas money and, therefore, consumers shipping costs. The only issues with this plan are that the truck isn't completely developed yet and the companies have to pay money out of pocket to replace all of their old trucks.

In my opinion, making every American own an electric car costs too much and is simply too communistic to implement into our society. In addition, it will cost too much to make every power plant environmentally friendly. This plan sounds good, but restricts many from enjoying a hobby and will cost Americans more than it will benefit them. The plan to make delivery companies own hybrid trucks, however, is a good one. After buying all hybrid vehicles, the shipping costs may go up for a while, in order to make up lost money, but, afterward, the environmental benefit, as well as the cost efficiency, will be well worth it.

Sources:
ic.galegroup.com
ic.galegroup.com

Clinton vs. Trump

It's presidential election season, and the two nominees just had their first debate. While neither candidate had a particularly good performance in the debate, one candidate has to have outdone the other. In this case, Hillary Clinton is the clear winner.

While it was clear that bother candidates tried to appeal to the audience's logic, Hillary took the win in her rhetoric. She used terms like "common sense gun laws" and  argued that she knew more about politics than Donald Trump. Trump, on the other hand, struggled in this aspect. He didn't back up his ideas and political views with solid plans on how he would implement his changes as president, and thus his argument was lacking.

Hillary also won in convincing her audience of her credibility. Although Hillary's track record on her truthfulness isn't as clean as she would like it to be, Hillary does have more experience in politics than the Donald. Hillary didn't forget to remind the audience of this fact, and the audience seemed pleased with the evidence. Donald, on the other hand, basically told the audience to trust him because he was a smart guy who knew what he was talking about.

Trump did, however, win the audience's emotions over. While both Hillary and Donald made the audience laugh or clap on several occasions, it was clear that Trump knew what he was doing. Trump knew when to say what to get a reaction out of the crowd, but Clinton simply sputtered out in this subject. Hillary would occasionally try to get the audience to show some emotion towards her "jokes," (this was evident by the way she would smile and wait for a cheer/laugh/clap, then frown and move on after not receiving one) but her excessive attempts essentially handed Donald the win.

Because the two candidates were debating on a more serious topic to a more serious audience, there was no real need to win over the audience's emotions. Therefore, Hillary was the clear winner in the debate. However, after Trump's sputter in this debate, it will be interesting to see how he returns in the future.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEHPrYUcoi0

Sweatshops: A Critical Review of Nicholas Kristof's Argument

Nicholas Kristof (pictured below) is a 57-year-old opinion journalist for the New York Times who is generally seen as a staunch liberal in his opinions. However, Kristof has one opinion that differs greatly from the average left-winger; Kristof thinks sweatshops are great. While most people assume that sweatshops are terribly cruel to the workers who are employed there, Kristof plays the devil's advocate and says that sweatshops may be the best thing that ever happened to poor countries.

Nicholas Kristof

Kristof argues that if it were not for sweatshops, the poorest people in the poorest countries could never escape poverty. The main problems Americans have with sweatshops are that the pay is too low, the work is unsafe, and the labor is unfair. This may be true... from an American's point of view. From those living in poverty in the poorest countries in the world's point of view, however, a job in a sweatshop is like a dream come true. Kristof emphasizes this point by asking Cambodian peasants who work in sweatshops how they feel about the situation. One lower class 13-year-old girl states, "It's dirty, hot, and smelly here; a factory is better."

Another point that Kristof uses is that, no matter how hard unions may try, improving conditions for workers is nearly impossible, and usually not beneficial. United States non-profit organizations love trying to improve working conditions for those in sweatshops. If these organizations are successful in making new laws that change things or make the companies who provide sweatshop workers their jobs lose money, the companies will simply pull out of the country, and go set up shop somewhere else without the laws. While their hearts are in the right place, all these organizations do is cause millions of poor people who were on their way out of poverty to return to the bottom of their class.

Overall, Kristof presents a strong argument for a sad cause. His general argument is that no matter how terrible sweatshops may be, they are better than the alternative jobs for the peasants of the poorest countries in the world.

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/KRISTOF-BIO.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html

Are Graphic Video Games Really an Issue?

A visual on the site mediaviolence.org depicts a young boy enveloped in his video game overlaid with text stating the top games of 2011. This visual makes a powerful statement about how realistic and lifelike people can think video games are. The central image is merely a child playing video games, but after listing the top games of 2011, all with violent titles, the image suggests that children are being directly affected by this form of entertainment.

This visual is effective because, for those with little background knowledge of video games, the message might be easily perceived to establish a direct relationship between playing violent video games and the likelihood of children growing up with a violent mindset. Too many people are easily convinced that the truth is that more violent media corresponds with more violent mass shootings. However, these speculations can easily be refuted by facts.

 As demonstrated in the graph above, the amount of violent crime per capita decreases even with the larger amount of violent video games available for consumption. Often times, people make the point that becoming desensitized to violence is a bad thing. I would argue against that point. Desensitization to violence is critical to survival in the real world, because violence happens all around us, every day. If we all live in a make-believe, fairy-tale land, then the first time we would be introduced to any real-life violence, we wouldn't know how to react and everything would fall apart.

For further reading:
mediaviolence.org
ojp.usdoj.gov