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.