Rhetorical Analysis

I strongly feel that D’Silva (on http://www.buzzle.com/articles/antiabortion-arguments-reasons-against-abortion.html) is a good writer. D’Silva is a professional writer and writing is his passion, many of his articles can be found on Buzzle.com. He is now working as a copywriter at an Indian advertising firm. He wrote a well-written argument about anti-abortions in May 2007. He is strongly against abortion.
To justify his opinions and to attract readers, he used different rhetorical strategies. D’Silva opened his article by describing the concept on how murder is actually involved during an abortion procedure. He wanted people to understand that every abortion kills a human being, an unborn child that would never experience life. D’Silva included religion statements, facts and his opinions to show the cons of an abortion.
An abortion article is not easy to convince, especially one that is written by a male. I am sure we all thought, “How could he possibly know what it feels like to have an abortion since he never would and could never have experienced it first hand himself. D’Silva defended his position by mentioning that an abortion does not only affect the mother but the whole family as well. He may have experienced the pain of an abortion by someone close to him.
Last but not the least important, D’Silva included a lot of facts in his articles. People typically go to the doctor for answers when it comes to making an important decision concerning their health. They would be more likely to believe the outcome of a good source. D’Silva included the severe consequences of abortion to convince people that abortion is not a good decision, such as how an unborn baby would never experience life and the effects towards the mother. One of the possible side effect after an abortion would be for the mother to be unable to get pregnant ever again.
Even though, I believe that his article was very good, he supported his statements, however he did not cover situations where the mother has been raped or knowing that their unborn baby would be severely disabled. In that case, I believe it would be ok if they chose abortion since it is beyond their control.
Overall, I personally feel his article was very eye opening for the readers. It was for me, I even learned some new things, especially the side effects of an abortion on the mother. I am positive that his article about abortion brings out a lot of arguments because regardless of the facts, everybody tends to think that their opinion is what matters the most. I suggest that whoever has to make decision about abortion chose abortion as the last choice instead of first.

Rhetorical Analysis

Roy D'Silva is a professional writer and writing is his passion, many of his articles can be found on Buzzle.com. He is now working as a copywriter at Indian advertising firm. One of D'Silva's articles is "Reasons Against Abortion" I have always disliked the idea of abortion, which is why I picked this kind of argument. D’Silva listed the cons of having an abortion, and he included his opinion, religion reasoning and facts.
To convince readers like me, he shared his opinions with facts to support it and to make the readers see that he really knows his stuff. He mentioned that he does not support the idea of women having an abortion; he included the religion fact by stating “a child is a gift from God.” In the religious world, that states that God had a purpose for that certain person to have a baby and having an abortion is like disobeying God. D’Silva also mentioned facts about the mother’s body will never be the same after going through an abortion. He shared that 90% of abortions are illegal in America. That is a shocking number.
Since he is a male writer, it is tough to find this article convincing because it is not an argument coming from the heart. He could not experience it first hand since he is not capable to get pregnant therefore this article lacked pathos. Although, he included that the mother is not the only person who is affected by the abortion process but the whole family as well. Maybe one of his family members went through an abortion therefore he went though the process himself.
I disagree with his writing since he mentioned all the cons about abortions. Even though I do not support abortion, I would understand if somebody got an abortion after being raped. Basically, he stated that abortion is not good for one's health and it is simply wrong, no matter what.
Overall, I personally feel his article was very eye opening for the readers. It was to me, I even learned some new things, especially the "side effects" of having an abortion. He included the logos to convince me that abortion is not the choice. I am positive that his article about abortion brings out a lot of arguments because regardless of the facts, everybody tends to think that their opinion is what matters the most. Arguments about abortion will always continue.

D’Silva, R. (2007). “Reasons Against Abortions” Web site: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/antiabortion-arguments-reasons-against-abortion.html

List of This I believe

I believe in…

• Compassion
• Family values
• Moral values
• Standing up for what is right
• Religion differences
• Sharing
• Exploration
• Second chances
• Second life
• Hakuna matata

Nafsi in Lunsford

Nafisi (in Lunsford et al. 2007) piece states her beliefs of empathy. She placed her emotions in words, she argued about her own religion. She included facts, and stories that she believes are similar to her life experience.
Nafisi stated that one woman was shot and killed in a football stadium in Kabul because she violated the dressing code. (2007) That is an argument including a fact, Nafisi is telling us that people are not being treated fairly using examples from real life experiences. She even mentioned her experience being expelled from a University because of her race. She was not the only one who got kicked out; there were others.
In Lunsford et al. 2007, mentions that many Americans will at least say that they believe all people should be treated the same way, no matter who they are or where they come from. I agree with it but sometimes I catch myself being scared of the Muslims at the airports because of what happened on September 11, 2001. I know that not everybody is the same, and I should never label a person based on its own cover. Even though, I know all this, I still have this fear towards Muslims. I am sure even though people say we should treat everybody equally but we do not exactly act on it.
Nafisi feels that her life is similar to Huckleberry Finn because in the novel by Mark Twain. Huck stood up for his friend even though he was a slave. Huck was willing to give up his own life for his friend, which says a lot. Nafisi believes that Huck went against what the others were doing and did what he felt was the right thing; it required a lot of courage to do that.
Based on the discriminations and problems Nafisi is struggling through, she feels she could connect to everybody’s problems relating to discrimination. However she goes by everyday asking herself if she is prepared to take on the world. It is the same question I ask myself every morning, "am I ready to take on what will happen during the day today?" I believe we, the minorities, ask that question to ourselves everyday.
I recommended every elementary student to be required to take classes explaining the different kinds of cultures, and disabilities in this world during elementary. It is easier to teach kids the necessary facts when they are young. With the classes provided we could live up to, instead of saying and doing nothing, American’s belief that everybody is being treated equally.

Mother Tongue

Amy Tan wrote this short novel about the language of her mother. I found this story very touching because I have seen many people go through something similar to what happened to Amy’s mother. I have seen it through my eyes because of my culture. Being a deaf person is not easy when the hearing test our language, not the American Sign Language one but the English.
Tan wrote it in very detailed method, it made me feel as if I was in the same room when it happened to her mother, the struggle she bearded through. She even mentioned the words that came out of her mother’s mouth.
“Some of the assumptions in an argument will be based on shared values derived from culture and history.” (Pg 95 Lunsford et al.) From American’s perceptive, any language that is not stated correctly is plain wrong. Nothing but wrong. Amy’s mother stated the words correctly; it is just not completed. It is part of the culture, where we come from. In china, broken language did not seem so bad; I mean people could understand each other, which are just what we need. In America, it does not work that way. Americans tend to look at the mistakes we make but in other countries, they do not waste their time on those kind of stuff, they would rather spend their time on cultural values.
We, as the deaf people, went through that experience tons of time, being corrected by the others. When Amy explained that her mother did not get what she needed at the hospital because of her “broken” language but when Amy showed up and spoke the perfect English, her mother got the tests. That is not fair. That shows using arguments from the heart, in the second chapter, page 58 in Lunsford et al. I am positive that Amy feels angry about the way her mother is being treated and she wrote a story to present her argument by putting unfair experiences that her mother went through.
In my opinion, Amy Tan wrote a good story, about her mother’s life and the way she ended her story was very chilling, she wrote what her mother said about the story. It shows that Amy does not look at her mother differently like others do. Only if we could accept everybody for who they are, we would have a lot less arguments in this world.

Learning Concepts and Language

Learning concept and language is something that is not easy to understand. When we were young, it is easy to connect the concepts to the word itself. “I create a family of meanings by means of other concepts interrelated with that of dog, such as animal, furry, muzzle, paw, tail, and so forth.” (Pg 32 Paul and Elder 2005) When it comes to young kids, concepts are basically how you describe the word you are trying to tell. When we do that, we tend to over- generalize the word, and we could use the word “pets” can you imagine how long the list can go on under that word. I am not going to start on that list.
When I read the “Learning Concepts and Language” I totally said ah, yeah, that is exactly what I did. Sometimes I use concept to describe something such as appearance or something that I do not recall the word to. I am sure everybody has done that before. Language is one of the confusing stuff to understand especially when you have to describe it correctly; you cannot use wrong concepts because then you will give out wrong idea. “Unfortunately, nothing in the way we ordinarily learn to speak a language forces us to use concepts carefully, or prevents us from making unjustifiable inferences while engaged in their use.” (Pg 32 Paul and Elder)
When we learn a new word, we have to adjust our concepts to combine it with our new word and to make sure that our mind “digests” the word and understand it. When we happen to forget the word when we need it, we try to remember and use the concepts that we made some connections to the word itself. “Each word has a home in at least one established system of meanings. To learn the meaning of any one word in a system of words, we have to learn something of other (interwoven) meanings.” (Pg 33 Paul and Elder)
When it comes to critical thinking, it requires a lot of concepts to clash together in order to get the big picture. It is like you have to think the concepts out of the concept.

Page 42 reaction/reflection

Language is a beautiful thing, we use it to express our feelings, we could inform things, to convince people, to explore and make decisions. We could express it in many different ways, in different kinds of emotions. Based on my experience, I have used language in many different ways. I use it to inform people with the information I have. I use it to convince people to think the same way as me. I use it to explore, to discuss our opinions. Of course, we use the beautiful thing to make our decisions that could impact our lives and to meditate.
Using the language with information is a good way to persuasion somebody, if I did not do that, I would not have my best friend graduate with me. Since she comes from a hearing family, she did not know anything about Model Secondary School for the Deaf. I used my knowledge of what I knew about the school in Washington DC and the one I was about to transfer. I told the facts about the school. I inform her what MSSD has to offer us and I convinced her, we spend our last three years of our high school lives together at MSSD.
The open discussion about life or anything that makes me think and share my thoughts is very appealing. We, of course, use our language to express our opinions and that gives me the opportunity to explore different kinds of perceptive that we as an individual have. To explore things through language, there is a high percent of arguments that will occur based on opinions we have and on how strong we believe it. One topic we had a good discussion was about abortions, I do not agree with the idea of killing a baby. That brought up the discussion, a friend of mine, stated about women who got pregnant after being raped. Is it fair for the victims to keep the baby, the one they did not want to have. That made me explore the other side of abortion. It opened my mind and made me think about the things that I disagree on. Sometimes people have to do what they have to.
To make a decision is not easy because it could be a decision that could change your life. In making decision, it has arguments and persuasion combined. When we decide something that is different than the peer have made, it could create a conflict and that is when arguments occurs. Based on what we think, on what we believe; everybody tend to think they are right instead of others. At the same time it could be a persuasion because when you decide on something, and your friend disagree, you could convince them to change their decision and follow the decision you have made. My junior year at high school, I did not think I was that good enough to be on the basketball team therefore I decided to not to play and my friends refused to give up, they argued with me. Trying to make me change my mind and join the team, they gave me reasons especially telling me that if I did not join, I would not feel close with them due to away games and tournaments. They persuaded me. I ended up on the team with no regrets.
When it comes to praying, a lot of arguments tend to happen. This is America; everybody is entitled to choose their religion. We share our words through praying. At my great-grandma’s funeral, there was a pastor who shared a touching story about dying and being in a dark hole before being freed. People at the funeral did not agree with that kind of prayer since they have their own religion beliefs.
Without language, we will not be able to express our opinion, to inform, to convince, to explore, to make decision and pray. Language could lead us to arguments, to understanding others better. Basically, without language, we would not be the people we all are right now.

stiarx!

This girl here, typing this blog is just another average teenager, a Jersey girl, born and raised there for eighteen years. Somebody that is not sure what she wants to do with her life, uncertain of her own future. I come from a deaf family, fourth generation. My parents created me, they have taught me everything that I needed to know. They both also made me suffer being the second and youngest member of the family. Yup, I have an older brother who is also attending Gallaudet. My brother was disappointed that he did not receive a younger brother instead of me. Leaving him with no other choices, he rough-played with me up and treated me as if I was a boy. That is the reason why I am into sports, especially soccer. I have been playing soccer ever since I was six years old; I have played on three different teams. Until I transferred to MSSD, it did not provide a soccer team; therefore I stopped playing for three years. I would not attend to Gallaudet if it did not have a soccer team. Another passion beside soccer is loving animals. I mean, what is there not to love those adorable dogs and cats! I own a black Labrador, he is thirteen years old and still adorable, and I also have two cats. I adopted one and found another one. When it comes to stray or abused pets, I always invite them in, which are one of traits I have that my parents hate. They are animal-lovers but it is just that I always leave the “taking care” part to them. Well, maybe I am not completely clueless about what I want to do with my life, there is something. I would like to save those strays, to give them loving homes they deserve.

Now, you know something about me.