To Snopes or Not to Snopes?

To be completely honest I have never been on Snopes.com before this assignment, I had heard of the site but never used it. The website is quiet intriguing, as it tries to debunk stories, rumors and articles posted online via websites like Facebook. In looking through some of the "fact checks" Snopes.com does the stories range from completely unbelievable to I can't believe that was fake. 

One of my favorites was where they reviewed an article about 22 dead bodies being the reasons behind the Flint river contamination. The original article stated that police discovered 22 corpses within the river and are claiming it is the reason behind the contamination. Snopes looked into the story and found it to be falsified, and released information about the actual issue taking place in Flint River. 

I do not see evidence of bias in the few debunked stories I read, but that doesn't always mean there is none. 

I look forward to using Snopes.com in the future so I can look into the truth behind some of the stories I see on social media.

KSU Sentinel

I personally love reading the Kennesaw State University Sentinel quiet often, I try to snag a copy every week or every time I see a new copy on the racks in the parking garage. I have found that the editors are good at not repeating stories to often or frequently. Which I personally find very important so that you can keep readers up to date on new events and provide a wide variety of stories to appeal to different audiences. 

The only story I have seen a lot of in the Sentinel is the controversy over the ability of carrying on campus for students and professors. I like that the school has been very focused on the topic and showing the differing points of views, at one point the author points out students should be able to carry on campus since that criminals bring guns onto campus even though it is illegal and there is no way for students of faculty to protect themselves.  I found it strange that there weren't very many responses on the articles since this is a topic that effects everyone at Kennesaw State University. 

 

I hope that since we are having to do assignments based on issues and articles at Kennesaw State University that it will open more students eyes and get them more involved in expressing student views on campus.

Formulating a Response

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/politics/donald-trump-nevada-rally-punch/

I choose to write my blog on the article "Defeating Trump won't End Bigotry, Fear, Racism" by Leonard Pitts from the Miami Herald.

The links to the article and the letter to the editor are below-

http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/opinion/defeating-trump-wont-end-bigotry-fear-racism/nqjFZ/

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/opinion/readers-write-march-23/nqqTS/

The article is about who will be the 45th president of The United States and where we need to go from this point forward never the less who is elected. We have reached a point in America where economic insecurity, ignorance, bigotry and fear have consumed our Politics and have produced some scary pieces of work. First we had George W. Bush, then Sarah Palin and now Donald Trump, each of these people used one if not more of the forces mentioned above to their advantage in running for office or passing bills and laws. By confronting each issue individually and learning what we the people can do about what is taking place in American Politics we can stop another Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, or even someone worse from running for the position of President.

I enjoyed and completely agree with the letter to the editor by Gil Leines to AJC on this article. She bring up the point that the writer should not use words that they do not fully understand. In her short paragraph on the article she provides the definition of a bigot to show that the writer of the article was wrong for claiming Trump to be a bigot and to mention bigotry. She then questions the writer that by claiming Trump and his supporters to be by his definition bigots then what does that in turn make him.

My Relationship With Literature

http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/details.php?
ebook=3248

https://www.etsy.com/listing/69843917/vintage-mark-twain-books

In highschool I waited for when teachers posted the summer reading list online for students to view. I love reading books because to me you can escape reality and live among the pages with the characters. I had to write a research paper on any writer of my choice in ninth grade and I choose to write a paper on Mark Twain. It was a very challenging paper to tackle as we had to have 25 sources and the paper had to be a minimum of nine pages, but reading his books made it easier to write the paper since it portrayed such enticing stories. After completing the assignment and looking back on the information and achievements I accomplished it opened my eyes to how intriguing literature can be and I fell even more in love with the written word.
In my sophomore year of high school we had to complete an assignment on a work of literature that was adapted into a film. I choose to do my favorite book of all time, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The assignment was stretched out over an entire school year which was very helpful since the book was nearly 1000 pages, and the movie nearly 4 hours. Procrastinating on this assignment was nearly impossible because of the time it took to go through both the book and movie and analyze each section. After finishing the book and breaking down the chapters it was quiet shocking to see how different the movie adaptation was from the book. In having the two versions of the story differ it made the analyzes of both quiet different, but it also allowed for a great paper since the differences in the two adaptations could be compared.

I have always loved to read but every time I do a major paper on a work of literature I realize just how much I love escaping reality to feel what the characters feel and walk along side them throughout the story.

Which Major Will I Choose?

http://www.njfamily.com/Play-Dress-Up/

When we are kids, we fantasize about what we want to be when we grow up. Once we get to college the time comes that we have to make the decision of what to be one we graduate. Choosing a major is not always an easy decision, for me it was very complicated. 

I decided when I was 11 that I wanted to go to school to become a vet and I originally declared my major as Biology. I knew that if I went into a field of work I loved it would never truly feel like work. I started school at Georgia Highlands College when I was a Senior in high school. Unfortunately I had to have a councilor set my schedule for my first year, the advisor looked at the requirements for a different degree and I spend my first two semesters of school working on a Business degree.

After realizing I was working on a Business degree I decided to declare myself a double major in Business and Biology. I applied to Southern Polytechnic University after I graduated high school, and then Southern Poly became apart of Kennesaw. I plan on finishing both my bachelor degrees before transferring to UGA for my masters in Biology. 

I hope that with both of my degrees I can fall back on either field if something was to go wrong. After I graduate I want to begin an internship at a vet clinic or at a zoo, I would enjoy being able to spend time with household pets or even exotic animals like lions and tigers and bears. If I can not get a job in that field then I would not mind using my business degree and working in a office pushing paperwork. 

Everyday Research

Being a full time student and having a full time job can be quiet time consuming. From the moment I wake up to the time I lay down at night my day revolves around my phone, my mac, and my work computer. As soon as my alarm goes off the research starts, while doing my morning routines (i.e. brushing my teeth, and hair) I open my Weather Channel app on my phone to see what lovely mother nature has in store for us in the South. After I check the weather I get dressed and head to work.

Once I get to work I open the internet on my work computer and scroll through the news stories on my homepage and dig deeper into the stories I find interesting. My day consists of a lot of customer service calls that sometimes requires me to spend time on google and fabric vendor websites looking up fabric information or quilting patterns. The remainder of my day at work consists of contacting clients for more information on an order or even payments for orders.

After work I head to school where I spend any where from a hour to six hours daily for classes and studying. For both class and studying I am constantly researching the answers or how to solve for the answer. Quizlet, Chegg,  Khan Academy, and the library are what keep me from going crazy when working on school assignments. By the time I get home from school I am extremely exhausted but before I can go to bed I have to spend some time stalking Facebook or Instagram, sometimes even Pinterest, so when does the research stop.

Car Insurance Ads

Car insurance is a necessity for any one who owns and drives a car. There are a wide variety of car insurance companies to choice from but the ads all contain the three components of the Rhetorical Triangle. Ethos are present in the ads by insurance companies, but are not as heavily relied on as much as pathos and ethos.

http://www.brandchannel.com/2015/09/10/5-questions-nationwide-091015/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2935929/Outrage-Nationwide-Insurance-shows-dark-depressing-commercial-dead-little-boy-Super-Bowl.html

In the right ad above, Nationwide Insurance Company used the emotional and logical appeal of the death of children to draw in customers. On the picture to the left, they you the ethical appeal of Denver Broncos Star Quarterback to catch attention of football fans to bring attention to the brand. In both ads, Nationwide tries to establish a connection with viewers saying "Nationwide Is On Your Side".

http://www.360charlotte.com/Insurance/Corey-Wilson-Agency-Allstate-Insurance.html

This ad is from the insurance company, Allstate. In the ad, establishing a story with the mayhem character uses an ethical appeal since many people have associated the character with the company. They have the Mayhem character act out accidents that can occur if that you are not better protected with Allstate. The ad above also uses the logical appeal, logos showing that on average drivers can save $498 if that switch to Allstate. The second use of logos is at the bottom of the ad where they show the offers that Allstate can give you as a customer.

      

http://newtonideas.net/category/advertising/insurance-advertising/
http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/niehaus-choosing-images3/

The two ads above are from Progressive Insurance. Flo is the woman who is depicted in the two ads, she is one of the two characters that Progressive uses to show ethos in their ads. Both ads use pathos in different ways, the ad on the left tells customers to be there own boss allowing them to feel in charge. The picture on the right uses pathos in a way to show customers not the stress about comparing rates, because Progressive will do it for you. Lastly the logos in the ad on the left are that using the "Name Your Price Tool" is what will allow you to choose the price right for you and they will build a bundle around that price. The ad on the left shows the prices of other insurance rates compared to progressive to allow the customer to find the right insurance at the right price, which is the logical appeal.