Andrew's Blog

Visual Arguments

In the reading, the book begins by defining how to convert an idea from paper into a visual argument, starting with four key decisions, identifying your argument, your audience, medium, and the specific form. The argument is the meat of your paper; the audience is whom the author wants to catch and have read their argument; medium is a type of printed article that helps bolster the argument you are making, and the specific form is how you are organizing your paper. This chapter discusses why to include images with research papers, for example, if one is discussing the very heated argument of the drinking age, one might put a picture including the law, to show where the law is stated and have the picture evidence to back up the author.

Throughout the course of this chapter, the author lists how to design an argument for different audiences, such as an academic audience, a public audience, a visual audience, and a technological audience. The author also explains how to format the writing for each type of audience, i.e. word choice, organization, etc.; such is the case that one would not make a photo essay for an academic audience, one would construct an abstract and could write a thesis or research paper to get the argument across to their audience. Consequently, the author continues to elaborate on how visual and verbal design elements are important to one’s audience, mainly because if the article/page in question is not visually appealing, many will not appreciate the article just from the first glance perspective, so making a page that is visually appealing is extremely important to the overall look of one’s work.

A multimedia montage seems to be closely related to what we are embarking on in class, because as the book says, a multimedia montage involves the combination of numerous media, i.e. images, sound, writing, digital elements, etc. because we are combining multiple media types to change the world!

Reflection on Envision in Depth

The position that many take on different subjects is one that has many opinions. Newspaper articles go through thousands of images to show their view on issues, disastrous events, and other problems. The images that these articles use attempt to show the true sadness of an event, in an attempt to sway the opinions of the readers of the articles. If one is viewing a picture of destruction of a neighborhood, they may feel differently than if they are viewing a picture of a neighborhood with a pile of dead bodies, with children among the dead. The natural reaction anyone will have from viewing this picture is sadness and a longing to aid the people who are suffering in the picture. If you are a part of the destruction, you are among the many, who pray for relief and help.

Writers of these articles are also important, because their viewpoint on an issue and their use of pathos conveys the emotions in the images, attempting to show the readers the true tragedy of the situation, even though they are not there to witness the destruction themselves. The writers use of pathos is beneficial to their cause because the emotions a reader has from reading a colorful description of an accident causes everyone to feel the same pain as the individuals in the image.

Free Fallin' (and writing)

A workaholic is a determined, hard-working, and busy individual. The life of a workaholic is one that many would believe to be always busy and never-ending. In this paper the goal is to discuss the life of a workaholic and how being a workaholic benefits the individual in the long run. Also, to discuss the behavior of a workaholic, how they approach their day, their organizational abilities, and also how their peers approach them.

The types of sources I have found are mostly articles/studies done on workaholics and the differences between them and “normal” workers. Also, I have found articles debating whether or not workaholics love an organized workspace, and if the interruption by their peers bothers them much. I am possibly going to have to obtain an article, perhaps from a psychological standpoint, of how one becomes a workaholic.

Throughout the process of my research, there are several problems I may encounter. I might not be able to acquire 100% of the research I need, the topics could be too broad in respect to my topic, etc. To solve these problems, I will most likely have to focus on certain aspects of workaholics and their lives.

Research Paper Article Content

Find five sources to support your Research Topic and write about three sentences outlining the content of each article.

http://gom.sagepub.com/content/26/3/369.short- In this article, the author is discussing a study that is done by a student at the London business school, the study is done on 174 business managers and professionals with a masters, and they have to rate themselves on their work ethic. This is beneficial because rating a manager of a company has to give an honest opinion to keep their credibility. Also, knowing how a manager works for his/her company gives a good or bad impression on the manager.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=883197&show=abstract - This study examined the relationship of workaholism and related it to job and career success. This study attempts to measure the success of a person's job in relation to the amount of hours that a person works. The test resulted in a negative effect, meaning if an individual works more hours, they are not satisfied with their job.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01926189808251102 - This study is about children who come from the environment of workaholics. The study also paralleled and did the same study, but about children who came from the environment of non-workaholics, and how both of these environments affect children as they are growing up. This is beneficial in realizing how different growing up in one environment is to another.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2007001/pdf/9629-eng.pdf - Statistics and other important information about people who consider themselves, "workaholics", is included in this article. Also, the article breaks down workaholics in categories such as gender, age, occupation, and income. These statistics are important because knowing the different areas that tend to lean more toward causing employees to become workaholics.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=883300&show=abstract - The study conducted in this article contains information about the workplaces of workaholics. The study wishes to discover whether or not workaholics prefer to be in a more demanding work environment. The study also worked towards examining the cultural preferences of workaholics, as in how organized they are with their workspace, if they want their workspace to be demanding, etc.

Research Paper Topics

Workaholics- Do americans work too much?
Driving- Is passing the driving test one time truly good enough for a lifetime of driving?

Workaholics- This topic is interesting to me because I am of the working class. I have held two jobs for the last two summers, working almost 60 to 70 hour work weeks. Because of these jobs, I understand the process of learning to manage my free time to accomplish the most during it. Also, I can offer a valid opinion because I can explain the strains a difficult work week can have on an individuals life, what a person has to do to juggle 2 jobs, accomplishing both of them, and having a life with friends and family and others.

Driving- The driving test is one that an individual takes within their first year of driving, normally 6 months after getting their learning permit. This test is made to decide whether or not a state registered tester has decided that a teenager is able to drive by themselves. Once a teen passes this test, they do not have to take it again for the rest of their life, unless they get into trouble with the law and get their license suspended. I am proposing this topic because if as a driver gets older, laws may change, they might forget some of the original laws that they learned when they first started driving. One time of taking this test is beneficial for the first few years of driving, but a federal law saying that a driver needs to renew their test/license to continue driving would work wonderfully I believe because a driver may remember something that they forgot when taking the test again.

Rhetoric Image

http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/Adidassoccer.jpg

Thesis Statement:

Soccer, one of the most popular sports in the world, has many fans. From the United States to China, the fans of this sport pull for different teams, but the fans are what keeps this sport alive.