"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone..."

 Wow, what an accomplishment! I usually feel pretty good about turning in five pages that i know are mine, but nine was a remarkable feeling. I am really glad we had to have a chance to do an essay like that, even though it was hard. I have not written a research paper in probably 5 years, so it was very educational. I enjoyed looking up things on my topic and I felt very comfortable about looking up sources and checking out books from the library, which i feel is important information to learn early.

Learning about MLA in detail was also very beneficial. Its good to finally get those questions cleared up. Over all, it was definitely the most difficult paper we had to write, but with Chris's step by step set up of things, it was not that hard to complete. I enjoyed the conferences and peer review opportunities and I feel like we completed the paper in a timely, successful manner.

 And yet, at times this is still how I felt... :)

Nash, Johnny. "I Can See Clearly Now". Lyrics.

End of School Feast By: Albus Dumbledore

 Intro: Dumbledore begins by saying that it is the end of the year, but Cedric is gone. He acknowledges this and asks for them to stand and raise their glasses to him. 


Main Points:Cedric was a great, loyal, happy person. 
He was murdered by Lord Voldemort.
Everyone is welcome back because friendship and trust will keep them strong against the Dark Lord.


Conclusion:He concludes by saying that these are dark and difficult times, but we can all be strong against the evil. He states that if you ever have to make a choice remember Cedric Diggory.
Pathetic Appeals: He appeals to their sense of fear and shocks them with the truth of his death. He intends to bring them closer together by strengthening their friendship against a horrible tragedy in their lives.
Counter Arguments: The Ministry and Parents might not want their kids to know that, but he feels that the truth is better than lies, and that lies are an insult to his memory.


End of School feast: "The end," said Dumbledore, looking around at then all, "of another year."
He paused, and is eyes fell upon the Hufflepuff table…. 
(....)
"There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight," said Dumbledore, "but first I must acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here," he gestured toward the Huffelpuffs, "enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise you glasses, to Cedric Diggory."
(…)
"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities that distinguish Huffelpuff house. He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. I think you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how it came about."
Harry raised his head and stared at Dumbledore.
"Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."
A panicked whisper swept the Great Hall. People were staring at Dumbledore in disbelief, in horror. He looked perfectly calm as he watched them mutter themselves into silence.
"The Ministry of Magic," Dumbledore continued, "does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so – either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to his memory."
(snipped the bit about being thankful to Harry)
"Every guest in this Hall," said Dumbledore, and his eyes lingered upon the Durmstrang students, "will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again -- in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.
"It is my belief -- and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken -- that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. A week ago, a student was taken from our midst.
"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory." (GF37)

The first five sources...

So here are my background sources. I haven't done research like this in a long time. So it is actually quite interesting! Sara

1. Michael J. Haupert "Sports and Sport Industry"  The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History. Ed. Joel Mokyr. Oxford University Press, 2003.  Brigham Young University (BYU).  11 March 2011  <http://www.oxfordreference.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t168.e0705>


2. Richard L. Worsnop "Centennial Olympic Games:  Have the Games gotten too comercialized?" http://library.cqpress.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1996040500&type=hitlist&num=0


3.Wikipedia "Olympic Games- Budget" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games#Budget


4. "The Olympics-The Flow of Olympic Money" http://ic.galegroup.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE|EJ3011880107&mode=view#The_Flow_of_Olympic_Money

"I.O.C. Members Critical of U.S.O.C." http://ic.galegroup.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=News&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE|A179685713&mode=view


5. Wikipedia "Peter Ueberroth- The 1984 Olympics" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ueberroth

The Thesis..

Although already quite popular, world wide athletic competitions, such as the world cup and Olympics, should be more widely supported because they contribute to global peace through positively focused competition.

Thats what I got :) hope you like it.

I'm going to have an Issue with this Issues Paper...

So many options, yet no ideas. So where to start? Chris said we should think about things that we are interested in so here we go. I think writing a paper about the globalization of sports would be interesting. You could talk about the formation of things like the Olympics and how some countries allow foreign people to come in to play sports there. It also unifies the world with good spirited competition. I had a chance to see the World Cup advertised in South Korea just as much as it was in the U.S, and the actual competition was in Africa! I think sports are very interesting, when globalization is taken into account.

Another option could be something like movies, language, or even business?
I'm not sure on how to turn any of these into arguments though, without doing the boring ''this is true'' argument. Any help on that problem would be appreciated. Maybe I could say that good spirited competition can reduce global conflicts through friendly interaction?
 Help me out everyone :)

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Wow! Rhetorical analysis: check! We are going through these papers like lightening, but they've all been great so far. Although the rhetorical analysis was a lot harder for me to write then i thought it was going to be, it all turned out okay. I agreed with what was stated in class today, that it is so nice and appreciated to be able to pick your own topic for our papers. I am glad that for this one we had guidelines and articles to choose from, instead of an unlimited number of topics.

I thought that Friday in class was great because Chris was able to go over some things that he noticed and clear them up for us. Those types of class periods are the best because they can often clear up a lot of common confusion. The peer editing was a very successful day too, and it helped us to experience yet a different style of editing. Varying the different methods of teaching and writing is very important to help us all realize what works best for us.

Although nervous about the style of paper at the beginning, i overall thought that the Rhetorical Analysis proved to be a success. It helped me to focus on a style of writing that i have never been introduced to before.  This helps me to know that my college education is even broader and i am thankful that this class helped me achieve this. Thanks to all!
Sara K

Wonderous Words in Writing

In the article "Water Wars" he uses many different forms of diction and figurative language. I like the following examples:

Rhetorical Question: At the beginning of his article he tell the audience his paper can be summed up in one vital question- Tap or bottled water. This makes the audience think to themselves which one they honestly prefer and is a basis for swaying their opinion later in the article.

Imagery: "bottled water is ultimately a band-aid solution", "this news should send shivers down the spine of any concerned American", No one puts a gun to your head and forces you to drive...water, however, is a necessity." These specific uses of imagery make it possible for the audience to envision the severity of the authors opinion on certain matters. It kind of helps them to feel the way he wants them to by hinting at the impressions they should have.

Simile: "Taking away your water is the same thing as putting a gun to your head." This is a simile that is similar to the last use of imagery but it also is a striking conclusion that most would not come to without the help of the author. It obviously makes them appreciate water a lot more than they did before.

Thesis Statement

For my paper i believe that i would make the thesis statement a little something like this according to the outline we discussed in class.


Why you Can't Sit Down to Eat Without Making a Statement is an effective argument to convince consumers of the world to watch what they are eating because it uses emotional political topics, logical relations between food and foreign policy, and sound statistics to create a feeling of awareness about what political statement it makes to eat what you eat.

The title of this article is kind of long so that makes for a large sentence so i might need to fix that but other than that there yah  go!

Audience Post

The article I am thinking about choosing is Why You Cant Sit Down to Eat Without Making a Statement on pgae 158. It has some very interesting arguments about Ag that i find very interesting.

Audience: The American people and the politicians involved in political debates over food.

Current and/or contemporary events of importance: Big agriculture movements, importations, and organic booms

Profession/race/age/socioeconomic status: All people involved in the agriculture business.

Ideologies: Organic Movements

Issues of Importance: Whether of not to import goods as much as we have been and what not to eat if you dont support that group

Opponents: (real of percieved): opponents to big ag movements and importations and organic materials.

Major fears/worries: That consumers are picking to eat the things that they are economically against.

Opinion Editorial

I really enjoyed the Opinion Editorial because it is kind of like a written mini debate. I love the process of forming a well formulated argument and i especially love writing rebuttal arguments in order to not only gain favor for my argument but to win against others arguments. I thought the over all process was fun too. I thought that going to the writing lab and doing so many drafting days was well worth the time spent. I also thought that the essay was a good one to start off with because it introduced the rhetorical theme very well and wasn't too intimidating. Over all i thought it was a job well done!

Peer Review Day

Today's peer review was different than many that i am used to but i enjoyed it a lot. Honestly i was expecting to just run around the room and let as many people as possible read my work and then tell me it was pretty good, or give me a comment or two, then be done. I like this way a little bit better because by requiring us to write and answer certain questions about each others work we were guaranteed good feedback. It liked being able to answer the questions for my own paper too, because then when what i thought was the best quality really turned out to be the best it made me really happy.


I did not appreciate having to read my own paper out loud though. If there is some scientific reason why that helps with the process i'll tough it out and do it but it definitely was something i wasn't used to. It probably helps with voice and understanding context so i suppose its not that bad. Anyway, a very good day in English class for sure.

Both of our papers were about education issues at BYU so i've adorned my post with a beautiful graduation cap.

Practically Summer Time..

So here is something that has been on my mind. It is like the middle of May outside!! I am not used to this sort of warm January weather because usually January is the worst weather of the year. I've been worrying about getting to class without bundling up like a snow man(I'm quite good at it), but it is not necessary one bit. I hope it snows a lot again because it was only here for about two weeks before it all melted.

I have a co-ed soccer game tonight and although I'm very excited I wish i was playing outside. It is just like the weather in Alaska during our soccer season, so its making me sad to know its only January.

In the long run I do not mind that it has been so warm but i won't pretend that it is not strange. Oh well. Hopefully this just means I'll get to go skiing in the beautiful weather before summer actually arrives. That's my plan for this weekend. After I edit my paper of course. :)

Starting to come into focus..

So for my OpEd I have decided to focus on the General Education requirements of BYU and why they are what they are. A more specific aspect of my paper will be to address what happened to PE and Music requirements. I will of course be the writer and my general audience will be broadened to staff, faculty and students at BYU. The purpose will hopefully be to help people realize the important aspect of life they are missing out on by not focusing on healthy life styles and musical talent. My argument will definitely be in the beginning stages of the rhetoric life cycle but i hope to spark discussion on the matter and encourage people to see the importance of having this knowledge.

Some people may argue that those topics are not important to a higher education but I will argue that a healthy lifestyle and exercising the creative side of your brain are very important to everyday living. That is why we had to take those types of classes in the Elementary through High School ages. I also find it interesting that BYU once had an exercise class listed as a General Education class but is no longer required. So these are my basic topics and thoughts. I'm debating whether to stick with just PE and not try and argue both PE and music. I think it might be easier then i can talk about things like these health conscious people here. :)

The contents of an empty mind...

I've never been very good at the initial point of brainstorming. If i've already got an idea in my head its not as hard to branch out to others, but right now, i have nothing. So im going to give this my best shot and see where i end up at the bottom. Frankly to this point in the year I have tried to just continue to survive college and be as optimistic as possible, so to be asked to suddenly have a solid opinion of my own is quite unusual.

I have very mixed feelings about BYU at times so its hard to pick a solid opinion on one thing or another. I read the paper written on a ''kissless campus'' and although that is extremem i agreed with her and thought the paper was very amusing so i'd like to aim for that. I do not enjoy freshman housing and how because both genders are not always allowed inside. They must resort to the dark corners of the sidewalks where i like to, well, walk.

I am also curious why, unlike in high school, a P.E and/or music class of some sort is not required as a general education requirement. I could always talk about that. Anyway, with two very diverse ideas hopefully that gets me somewhere. Thanks.

The First Blog Ever

Hello everyone! My name is Sara Kenley and this is going to be my first blog ever. I am really quite excited. I am nineteen years old and this is my second semester here at Brigham Young. I have lived in Palmer, Alaska all my life. Alaska is the most beautiful place I have ever seen, but Utah is not so bad either. I am currently in the Civil Engineering program but am also looking into Accounting.  I really enjoy learning at such a engaged university. I love to play sports of all kinds but I am particularly fond of Soccer. It is not as fun to watch as it is to play so i try to play as often as i can.
 In my next few years here at BYU I hope to continue to be very involved in extra ciriculars and continue to soak up knowledge excessively. Im gonna get married in my own due time and hopefully have a job in my home state as either a successful engineer, or a trustworthy accountant. My time here at BYU will be the bravest experiment of my life. I intend to branch out, explore and find out what kind of person i intend to be for the rest of my existance. Well this has been fun. Time to comment. Until next time.
Sara Kenley