Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations

In this post I will be analyzing the author/speaker, audience, and context of three examples of public speech about the controversy surrounding the economic effects of legalizing marijuana.

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Source 1:"Why Colorado and Washington Were Wise to Legalize Pot"

• Author/ Speaker: The author of this article is Scott Shane. He is a professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University. He has also written several books including Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live and Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Businesses. Shane is definitely a credible individual based off of his professional history.
• Audience: The intended audience for this article are individuals who want to educate themselves about the general and financial benefits of legalizing marijuana. These people want a well-rounded education about the pros and cons of legalization.
• Context: This article was published on January 20, 2014. Therefore the information within this writing, which is presented as a standard article, is fairly recent and definitely still relevant. The legalization of marijuana in Colorado, on January 1 of 2014 was definitely the event that caused the author to write this article.

Source 2: "How legalizing pot could save America's Economy"

• Author/ Speaker: S.E Smith is the author of this article. She is an award winning author who has written many books in many genres. Knowing that she wrote this article gives the text a lot more credibility because she is so well known.
• Audience: The intended audience of this article are people who want to be given the opportunity to learn a lot about not only the ethical arguments occurring over legalization, but the many economic benefits of ending marijuana prohibition. These individuals are the type of people who want an unbiased and unaggressive representation of facts.
• Context: This article was published on November 9, 2014. Based on the fact that this article was released less than a year ago, it is apparent that its content is still very relevant. I feel that the events that caused this article to be written was the approved legalization, pending on Congressional approval, in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington D.C. that occurred right at the same time this writing was published.

Source 3: "Legalizing Marijuana for Profit is a Bad Idea"

• Author/ Speaker: There are two authors of this article, Jamie P. Chandler and Palmer Gibbs. Chandler is a political scientist at Hunter College in New York City. Palmer Gibbs is a journalist based out of Washington DC. These authors definitely seem to  have a decent amount of credibility.
• Audience: The intended audience for this article are people who want to learn about the negative effects of legalizing marijuana. The author is most likely trying to appeal to readers who already have poor opinions about legalization, or people who are on the fence about the issue.
• Context: This article was published on April 23, 2013. Though this publication date isn't very recent, the arguments within it are still reliable. The authors of this article most likely wrote it in response to American's push to legalize marijuana, following in Colorado's footsteps. The material is presented in a straightforward and informative way.

Reflection:

After reading and commenting on both Annelise's and Cynthia's "Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations" posts I am way more confident in the forms of speech that I chose to use for this post. Initially, I was concerned that my sources were too opinionated, but now I am reassured that author having a strong opinion on the topic is what this assignment is all about. From my peers I was able to see that arguments that had more detail and support tend to be way more effective at getting their message across, than less developed writings. After comparing my analyses to those of Annelise and Cynthia, I have come to the conclusion that for now they are adequate, because I covered the most pertinent points of each source, but once I decide on a rhetorical situation to focus on, I will need to evaluate the aspects of that piece of writing much more in depth.

Developing a Research Question

In this post I will be exploring a debate that is going on in my field of study currently and will be coming up with possible research questions for that topic. This work will help me on my path to completing project two.

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After exploring a lot of the debates that are occurring in business right now, I have successfully found one that I think will be intriguing enough to research for the completion of Project Two. The debate that I came across that is relevant not just in business, but in many aspects American culture, is the issue of the legalization of marijuana. Many people claim that legalization will be the key to solving America's current economic struggles. I think that this would be an interesting controversy to explore because I won't be looking at the debate surrounding marijuana solely from the typical and somewhat predictable ethical approach, but from an economic standpoint.

Possible research questions:

• In what ways would the legalization of marijuana throughout the United States of America benefit the nation's economy?
• Is financial profitability of legalization quickly attainable?
• Are there any ways in which legalization could hurt the American economy?

Finding out the answers to these potential research questions will be very rewarding to me, because the prevalence of this controversy in our society will only grow in the coming years. Gaining the knowledge from these answers will provide me with a well-rounded opinion about the controversy surrounding marijuana legalization, from an objective business mindset.

Reflection on Project One

In this post I will be answering the provided reflection questions.

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What challenges did you face during the Quick Reference Guide project and how did you deal with them?

• I think a major challenge that I encountered will the QRG project was the ambiguity of the content and direction that I could take my writing. Remaining organization of my many thoughts and goals for my outcome really helped my writing. I also struggled with deciding what information, from the plethora of sources that I have read about my topic, to include in my QRG. I dealt with issue by constantly asking myself how I as a audience of this writing would want the material to be presented and what they would want to learn about.

What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?

• My QRG vastly improved when I took the time to look at the provided examples of what a QRG should look like and how it should present information. Also, I think that I adequately explained the controversy without being too specific. I think that reason I was able to do this was due to my exploration of several sources of media and gaining a lot of background knowledge from that research.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project? Why?

• Going over the conventions of a QRG was very important for my success at writing a QRG. Our analysis of QRGs, which ranged from basic formatting to what the true purpose of this genre is, really helped me. Finding unbiased sources, writing short paragraphs, and making a real effort to keep a readers attention were all things that I knew I had to execute in order to make an effective QRG. I also think that hyperlinking to the sources that I used, and to enable my audience to read further on the topic really helped my project.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project? Why?

• Typically, when I've completed English projects of the past the thought that the more information you can stick on the page the better. However, in this genre the lengthy and predictable paragraph approach is not the way to go. Less is more with QRGs. 

How was the writing process for this project similar to other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?

• This project was similar to other school writing experiences because it was planning intensive, took a decent amount of time to complete, and called for a lot of revision. Covering both sides of an argument was important to developing arguments within a lot of past assignments, and yet again this was crucial in the success of my QRG.

How was the writing process for this project different from other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?

• This project as a whole was a lot different from anything that I have ever experienced in my schooling thus far. The writing process for this assignment was totally new to me, but I truly enjoyed the freedom and ability to discover on my own. Writing in a totally foreign fashion, regarding both blogs and the QRG style, was overall a rewarding experience, because my success was solely dependent on my own willingness to accept new challenges. No one was holding my hand.

Would any of the skills you practiced for this project be useful in your other coursework? Why or why not?

• Time management was a huge part in succeeding with this first project. Knowing that the work was going to get done unless effort was truly made inspired me to always keep working hard. I was able to creatively explore an issue in my future field and gained the skills to successfully conduct research and communicate my ideas with an audience. These skills are pivotal, not only with other coursework, but the adaptability that I was forced to experience within this project will be crucial in life as a whole. 

Reflection:

After reading the "Reflection on Project One" posts by Breanna and Sam I see the three of has have a lot of similar thoughts about the posed questions.

I enjoyed commenting and reflecting on these posts by my peers because it was nice to know that there were a lot of similarities between our experiences in project one. One aspect of this project that all of us agreed upon was the fact that this series of assignments called for a lot of planning and revision, like a lot of projects we have done in the past. Also in one way or another, we all talked about how important time management was to the completion of this first major project. Brianna and I agreed that this project was also quite different from a lot of writing assignments that we have worked on in the past because of the many freedoms that it gave us. Tyler, on the other hand, felt like this project was very similar to a most writing projects he has composed.

The First Destination

The end is here!! This blog post will contain the final culmination of this project. You may click here to access my official QRG...

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Clarity, Part 2

In this post I will explore and explain four more topics from the clarity portion of Rules for Writers that I will use to revise my QRG. I will also explain two ways that I improved my QRG with this newfound knowledge.

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1. Find the exact words-

• All chosen words within a piece of writing need to be well thought out. Connotations, rather than just choosing the biggest word possible, are really important to one's writing. Having too positive or too negative words within sentences can negatively affect the interpretation of those phrases in the eyes of the reader. Also, specific concrete nouns are considered to be a lot importance because they portray the meaning of the sentence in a more vivid way.
• This section of the book also addressed making sure that one's writing uses standard idioms. An idiomatic sentence is one that would make sense to a native speaker in that language, but could easily be misused when writing a long document like a QRG. Also this portion of the book warned about using figures of speech with caution. This is when a writer uses certain descriptive language to aid in a comparison between two things, but the figure of speech only complicates the comparison further.

Example:

Before: Traditional taxi companies are claiming that Uber is tantalizing taxi drivers to leave their companies, in order to join the Uber workforce.

After: Traditional taxi companies are claiming that Uber is luring taxi drivers to leave their companies, in order to join the Uber workforce.

The difference between these two sentences is merely on word, but that one word holds great meaning in the overall effect of the sentence. The word tantalizing, though seemingly quite intellectual held too much of a positive connotation surrounding the way that taxi companies feel that Uber is stealing their workers.

2. Balance Parallel Ideas-

• This section talked about balancing sentences, which involves making sure that parts of a sentence are in similar grammatical form. The advice within this portion of the textbook is especially relevant when writing a list or discussing a pair, especially when comparing two or more things.
• This part of the book also stated that sometimes it is necessary to repeat function words such as that or because, in order to make the meaning of a sentence clearer.

3. Emphasize Key Ideas-

• A major lesson that I learned from this portion of Clarity is that the main idea of a sentence should be in the independent clause, while minor ideas should follow in a subordinate clause. This is important for my writing because it will allow the main point of the sentence to stand out, while still allowing further explanation and avoiding choppiness in my writing. Using this technique could lead to the presence of run-ons, which I am slightly concerned about.
• This section of the book also warned not to subordinate excessively. Some times breaking one long sentence with many subordinate ideas can be way more effective than having one confusing sentence where some ideas seem more important than others.

Example:

Before: If a customer repeatedly receives poor rankings, which all Uber drivers can see prior to accepting their request for a ride, then drivers can decline to provide that individual with service, in order to avoid a bad experience as an Uber employee.

After: Drivers, the only ones who can see customer rankings, have the right to deny a person service based on consistently low ratings. This is a reliable way for a driver to prevent an uncomfortable experience as an Uber employee.

Initially this excerpt from my QRG contained excessive subordination. The sentence had so many parts that the point that I was trying to convey lost a lot of its meaning. By breaking this sentence into two separate phrases the message that I was portraying became more clear and effective.

4. Repair Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers-

• A simple, but very important aspect of this section was the reminder that modifiers should go before the words that they modify. Having modifiers dispersed at random times in a sentence can make the wording of that sentence very awkward and unclear. Placing modifiers in their correct location can really simplify the meaning of a sentence and make it a lot less wordy.

Identifying Basic Grammar Patterns

In this post I will analyze the longest pattern in my QRG by pointing out several grammar points. You can access my "Longest Paragraph" by clicking here.

Koehn, Christian, "Pattern." 9/5/2014 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

After completing this exercise I realized that my writing is definitely not simple. However, I feel like the sentences that I write must contain multiple parts, in order to convey that statement's proper meaning. Identifying sentence structure and pattern was quite difficult for me. I suppose this means that I need to vary the way the I write, which is easier said than done. I know that by this deadline there is no way that I could possibly simplify all of my complex sentences, but maybe by the end of this semester I will be able to have more concision in my writing. I also am concerned that some of my sentences are run-ons, which is another aspect of my writing that I should edit and aim to improve in the future.

Paragraph Analysis

In this post, I will discuss and reflect on what I have learned about my QRG after doing a paragraph analysis on it.

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Click here to access my Copy for Paragraph Analysis

Strengths: One of my strengths that I noticed, upon completing my paragraph analysis, was my focus on one main point in each paragraph. The way in which my QRG is formatted allows this to occur, because I acknowledge the varying points of view, between apposing sides of the controversy, pertaining to the debate topic within the heading of the cluster of paragraphs, pertaining to that given topic. I also feel that my ability to develop and link ideas coherently is quite strong, because the content of each paragraph has been well-planned out, as a result of the many effective sources that I found.

Weaknesses: A major weakness that I discovered through this process of paragraph analysis is my lack of proper transitions. When I first wrote my draft, I assumed that a new sub-heading was an adequate transition, but now I see that the opening sentence of a given paragraph needs a transition to keep the flow of the QRG. The internal organization of my paragraphs could also use some work. I am confident, however, that once I add more quotes and supporting detail to my work, my paragraphs will gain vastly improved internal organization.

Reflection on Project 1 Draft

I have learned a lot after reading and editing Jessi's and Tyler's QRG drafts. In this post I will discuss the "Audience" and "Context" of my controversy by responding to the provided questions provided on page 66 of A Student's Guide to First Year Writing, based off of my peers' reviews of my draft.

Sayer, Bretr, "Audience." 4/16/2011 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic 

Audience:

Who, specifically, is going to be reading this essay? Who am I trying to reach with my argument?

• The audience for my QRG is most likely going to be my peers, my professor, and anyone else who is interested in business/ the Uber controversy, and is able to find my blog.

Whats are the values and expectations? Am I adequately meeting those expectations?

• The expectations of my audience is to be be able to be informed about a topic, without being overwhelmed by the content or the way that it is presented. My current draft definitely contains informative content, however I still intend on making my paragraphs shorter and providing concrete details and evidence for the claims made in my QRG. 

How much information do I need to give my audience? How much background info or context should I provide for them without insulting their expertise?

• I personally think that a QRG should be able to provide its audience with enough background information to educate individuals on the topic, even if they have never heard about it before. I feel that providing too much content in a QRG is never an issue or an insult to a reader's expertise. Since a convention of a QRG is that it should be scannable and easy to read, if a reader already knows the content of a certain sub-heading, he or she can move on and chose to read a different part of the QRG that will provide him or her with new knowledge.

What kind of language is suitable for this audience?

• The language that a QRG should employ should be somewhat formal. Readers shouldn't feel as though they are reading a piece of writing that is overwhelming to comprehend, but they should also still feel as though the author of the QRG knows what he or she is talking about. The language that I tried to use in my draft is an attempt at happy medium between formality and understandability for readers. I want my language to make me appear credible, while still presenting my content in relatable fashion for my audience. 

What tone should I use with my audience? Do I use the same tone consistently throughout my draft?

•   I think that using an unbiased and informative tone is the best way to present my controversy to my audience. I intend on keeping the same tone throughout my QRG; because if my readers ever sense that I am leaning towards one side of the argument, then they will lose hope in my ability to properly represent both sides of the debate fairly. I hope that I have kept a consistent tone in my draft, while still allowing my own voice to come through and keep readers engaged.

Context: 

What are the formatting requirements for this assignment? Do I meet them?

• The formatting requirements of a QRG include an enlarged title, subheadings, hyperlinks, white space, short paragraphs, and visuals. In my current draft, I really just wanted to get the major arguments for both sides of the debate on the page. Therefore, I have a title, sub-headings, and white space, but still need to add images, hyperlinks, and other formatting that will make my QRG more appealing to readers. I will add the necessary features to fulfill the formatting requirements this week, now that I know that my content has made it past peer review.

What are the content requirements for this assignment? Do I meet them?

• The major content requirements for our QRG is to answer who is involved, what are they debating about, when did all of this occur, where is this controversy taking place, why is the controversy worth fighting about, and how is this debate being handled? I feel like I have adequately answered all of these essential content questions, in my draft. I definitely intend on going back into my draft and adding more detail to it, but for now I feel that I have the basis of my controversy covered in my QRG.

Does my draft reflect knowledge or skills gained in class in addition to my own ideas and voice?

• I would have to say yes to this question, solely based on the fact that before entering 109H I had absolutely no idea what a QRG even was. However, now I know what a QRG is and what it is supposed to contain, both in content and form. If we hadn't gone over the conventions of a QRG and assessed the credibility of different types of sources I definitely wouldn't have been able to make an effective QRG. Based on the knowledge and skills that class has provided me with I have been given the ability to subtlety interject my own ideas and voice into the content of my QRG because I am confident that I know the typical tendencies of QRG authors, based on the examples we went over in class.

Have I addressed any grammatical issues that my teacher highlighted in class or in my previously graded assignments?

• My teacher hasn't directly addressed any grammatical issued that I should look out for. However, I did make any grammatical changes that my peers suggested on my QRG draft. I will continue to look out for various grammatical errors that appeared in the "Clarity" portion of A Student's Guide, and certain mistakes that tend to continually appear in my writing.

Clarity, Part 1

In this post I will talk about what I believe to be the most beneficial topics, provided in the "Clarity" portion of Rules for Writers, that I can use to help my writing.

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Eliminate Distracting Shifts-

• Keeping the subjects of my sentences consistent in regards to number and person is something that I can look out for in my writing. This isn't the first time that I have seen this suggestion, but I struggle with number  and person because sometimes it is hard to catch small mistakes in shifts.
• Another aspect of my writing that this portion of the book made me aware of is the need to keep verbs in the same mood and voice. This will make my writing a lot more clear and understandable, because when verbs in the same sentence are unclear about who/what they are referring to, a reader can become confused.

Tighten Wordy Sentences-

• While attempt to have detailed writing, I sometimes make my sentences too wordy. Thus, by eliminating repetition or redundancies within my word choice, I could really improve my writing.
• Using simpler and more concise wording, and making sure that everything that I am saying within my sentences has meaning are a couple more ways I can simplify my writing.

Provide Some Variety-

• Changing and adding variety to the beginning of my sentences could help me. Starting sentences with the same words adds monotony to one's writing. 
• I think a lot of my sentences are too complex. If I were to include shorter sentences throughout my QRG, my audience's experiences while reading my will probably be better, and keep my audience's attention better.
• Trying to invert sentences and their parts could make my writing have more variety.

Choose Appropriate Language-

• This portion of the book made me re-evaluate my writing tone and language. I sometimes sound too formal in my writing. However, a major characteristic of the QRG genre is an informative and understandable style, thus I should probably go back and check over my language usage.
• I feel like I may be using euphemisms and doublespeak, rather than simple english, too much in my writing. Therefore, going back and looking to simplify my word choice and getting straight to the point could benefit my language.

Reflection:

In this post I will discuss what I have learned about my chosen topics from "Clarity" after reading Jessi's and Tyler's drafts of their QRGs.


Jessi definitely did a great job in her execution of providing variety in her writing. The Variety chapter, within the "Clarity" chapter states that too many complex, or even simple, sentences can make one's writing appear tedious to read. For instance in the draft of her QRG Jessi stated that, "Scientifically, McMath is dead. Without life support, she could never function on her own. Dr. David Magnus, a Stanford neurology specialist and author of 'Accepting Brain Death,' claims in a New York Times interview that 'there’s no reported case of a correct diagnosis of a brain death where anybody comes back.'" From this quotation from Jessi's draft, it is clear that she has a good grasp on varying sentences. In this particular instance, Jessi grabbed her audience's attention with a short sentence, but provided more necessary details in a following complex sentence. I learned a lot from Jessi and her ability to effectively use differing sentence lengths.

Looking at Tyler's draft, also further proved some of the suggested aspects of writing found within "Clarity". Like I mentioned above, I typically consider myself to be a verbose writer, who sometimes struggles to find the balance between formality and the informal and informational tone that a QRG requires. I get the sense that Tyler is also a somewhat wordy writer and I informed him of any concerning sentences that seemed to be to complex and long-winded. However, there were moments within Tyler's writing that inspired me and gave me hope that I can get straight to whatever point I want to make, without losing the formal way that I write, for instance Tyler stated, "In short, the controversy here is about the role field experimentation should play in political science research, and what the ethical limits of experimentation can and should be." In this quote, Tyler directly addresses what he wants his audience to see, while still maintaining a formal and intellectual tone. If I can find the balance between being direct and informative, while still writing like myself, like Tyler has done in this example, I think my writing will really be improved.

Thoughts on Drafting

In the following post I will analyze the most and least important aspects of writing a QRG, after reading A Student's Guide to First-Year Writing's tips on drafting.

Akerman, Scott, "Studying." 12/10/2008 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

The book's advice on thesis statements appeared to be very detailed and well thought out. I feel like there are a lot of good tips for composing an effective and interesting thesis within these pages. However, I don't think that the book's discussion of a thesis will be too beneficial to my QRG because I want to present the information that I am addressing in my QRG in an unbiased and informational way. I feel like, for my own QRG, a well-written conclusion will be more critical than a good thesis.

Writing Paragraphs in PIE format is a great topic that the book addresses. Although this isn't the first time that I have been exposed to the recommendation to write my paragraphs in this organized way, this part of the guide reminded me how crucial it is to have brief and detailed paragraphs in my QRG. This format will force me explain every idea and piece of evidence that I present to my readers, before moving onto my next thought.

The book's advice on writing introductions and conclusions will definitely come in handy for my QRG. The intro portion of the guide reminded me that I need to grab my readers attention, maybe through a quote or question, and provide a forecast for what my writing will be about, without giving too many details away. A good conclusion if imperative, especially for my QRG, because in the body of my wiring I am just going to try to present facts and arguments. My conclusion is where I will bring all of my thoughts together and try to asses why this debate is important and where it is heading.

Organization is key in any form of writing. Thus, this portion of the guide will benefit my QRG. I was reminded, from the book, that everything, no matter how minor, must have importance to my writing. Also, reading my draft out loud is definitely something that I will do so that I can make sure my QRG has the right tone and flow.

Reflection:

After reading the Thoughts on Drafting posts by Lauren and Addie I can know see what is essential to include in a QRG.

1. After reading the description of the PIE format, I now realize that I definitely need to break up my lengthy paragraphs and go into more detail about the claims that I am making about both sides of the issue. As Addie mentioned in her post, we are writing QRGs, not research papers, so I should definitely separate my big chunks of text and support my reasoning more.

2. I definitely need to go back to my QRG and read it aloud to myself. This will enable me to see if my QRG has the informative essence that it needs to encompass, as  Lauren  mentions, and allow me to change any wordy parts.

3. One more thing that I need to work on is my conclusion. A conclusion allows the readers of you QRG to see the meaning and importance of everything that they just read on your topic. Therefore in my QRG, I really want to have an effective conclusion to bring my writing full circle and bring together all of the arguments addressed by varying parties.

Extra Credit: Putting Quotes in Context

In this post, I will analyze quotes by celebrities and put them into context, by answering the provided questions:

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Speaker: Jaden Smith

Quote: "Your mid has a duality to it. So when one thoughts goes into your mind, it's not just one thought, its has to bounce off both hemispheres on the brain. When you're thinking about something happy, you're thinking about something sad. When you think about an apple, you also think about the opposite of an apple. It's a tool for understanding mathematics and things in two separate realities."

1. This quote was stated by Jaden Smith in an interview, alongside his younger Willow, with The New York Times on a November morning in 2014. The interviewer is never clearly stated, however the author of the interview posting is named Su Wu. The above proclamation was the result of the question asking how the siblings feel they have gotten better in their music. Willow first responded by saying,"Caring less what everybody thinks, but also caring less and less about what your own mind thinks, because what your own mind thinks, sometimes, is the thing that makes you sad."

2. When I initially saw this quote I instantly judged Jaden. I thought that he was just trying to be profound and provocative in the quote, like he typically does on Twitter and other forms of social media. However, after seeing the context behind his statement, I can understand Jaden a lot better and see where he is coming from. After seeing its context, this quote has a lot more meaning to it, and I can actually relate and appreciate it, which I wouldn't have done before.

3. Looking into the context of this quote was imperative to my true understanding of this quote, but also to Jaden and Willow as individuals. Seeing this quote on its own, with no context, made me think that poorly of Jaden, but after reading the whole interview I respect him and his sister a lot more. This just goes to show how media and pop-culture can portray individuals in a certain fashion, by taking things out of context, thus completely altering the true meaning of a statement.

Speaker: Mindy Kaling

Quote: "I feel so guilty when I upset my father or let him down. My dad is like the dad from The Road. He knows every highway in this country and what every building is made out of. He would do anything for me, and has done everything for me."

1. This quote was said in an interview between Mindy and Lena Dunham on November 11, 2013. The interview was for Rolling Stone. This quote was stated in response to Lena's question of: "Do you get guilty? If so, what makes you feel guiltiest?"

2. Initially when I read this quote, not knowing it was said by Mindy, I thought a celebrity with a famous father said it, someone like Jaden Smith. However, after being informed that this is a quote stated by Mindy and after reading the entire exchange between her and Lena, I am not surprised that this was her answer to the question. Throughout the interview Mindy presents herself in a thoughtful and respectable manner, which is most likely a result of the proper upbringing she was provided and appreciates so much. I found it interesting that her biggest guilt would be letting down her father, despite the fact that the majority of her role models are females and that she is openly a feminist.

3. Prior to reading this interview, other than seeing her on The Mindy Project, I didn't really know who Mindy Kaling was or what she stood for. I feel like society kind of discriminates people associated with comedy, and assumes that all that they can do is comedy, but it is obvious that this generalization is not true, especially for Mindy and Lena. Both women are clearly intellectuals with a lot of moral strength and determination. The fact that maintaining a good image in the eyes of her family is one of Mindy's biggest concerns reveals a lot about her character. I definitely have a lot of respect for Mindy after reading this interview, and will keep an eye out for her in the media from now on.

Draft of Quick Reference Guide

In this post, I will provide a link to the rough draft of my QRG. Also, there is a little letter, below, that is addressed to my peers who will review my draft.

SpaceX Photos, "CRS-4." 9/21/2014 via Flickr. Public Domain Dedication

Click here to access my draft!

Dearest Peer Editors,
I just want to warn all of you that this rough draft is indeed rough. The typical first phase of my writing process for major projects, after extensive planning, is to express all of my ideas and just to get them on the page... and that is what this draft is. Going back and adding images/visual data, hyperlinks, more direct quotes, and accurate citations to my sources are all things I plan to do, but I didn't really consider these things to be essential to a first draft. I usually struggle with grammar, specifically misused commas and run-ons. Also, I want to make sure that it seems apparent that I have enough evidence for both sides of my controversy and that my arguments seem effective, so if you guys could just look out for those concerns, in addition to general editing, that would be great!
-Thanks!!

Practicing Quoting

In this post, I will display a paragraph that I have written, which contains two quotes from sources within my annotated bibliography, in order to practice embedding quotations into my writing.

Thomas, Cortez. "Screenshot of Practice Quoting". 9/12/2015 via Google Docs

Signal phrase
Use of ellipsis/brackets
Proving credibility
Source in Context

QRGs: the Genre

In this post I will discuss and analyze the conventions of a quick reference guide, by answering questions about these conventions. This will help me when I have to create my own QRG.

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1. The conventions of a blog post and a quick reference guide appear to be quite similar.  These include:

• Title
• Sub-headings
• Concise paragraphs
• Images/Visual data
• Hyperlinks 

2. The title is typically the largest and most prominent text on the page, in order to grab a reader's attention. Sub-headings are also larger than the text within the paragraphs, and are typically presented as questions, which makes them stand out. The actual text of the guide is made up of brief, detailed paragraphs, with a lot of white space in between them. The paragraphs are formatted this way to make the text easy to read and to make sure the reader will not be overwhelmed by the appearance of the content. Images are used throughout the QRGs to provide emotional appeal to the readers, and further prove what the author is proclaiming. Hyperlinks are provided sporadically within the QRGs to allow the reader to find more more info on the given topic, and see evidence for what the author is claiming.

3. The purpose of a QRG seems to inform readers on a topic that they don't know much about. Or if a reader knows some information on the addressed topic, they can quickly navigate the QRG, in order to further his or her knowledge on the subject.

4. The intended audience for any given QRG appeals to individuals who want to learn more about the topics addressed within that guide. Though all of the example QRGs present the information about their topics in a similar, informal and simple, way their audiences can be very different. For instance individuals who are concerned with the debt crisis in Greece, may not care about Gamergate.

5. Authors can use images for many purposes. I think that the main reasons why images are chosen to be sporadically included in QRGs is to get a reader's attention and appeal to his or her emotion. Or on the other hand, images can include statistics and data to illustrate what the author is claiming, in a visual way. The types of images used in a QRG really depends on what the content of the guide it.

Reflection:

In order to analyze and reflect further on QRGs, as a genre, I looked at posts by peers. Posts by Mark, Jessi, and Jenny.

I feel like my peers and I have a really nice grasp on the idea of what a QRG is and what purpose it has. We all had a lot of similar thoughts about the conventions of a QRG, as discussed in class, and how they can be effectively used by a writer. One point that all my classmates and myself acknowledged was the varying audiences of the QRGs, all with a common goal. One aspect of my peers' posts was their execution of concision and bullet points, especially in Jenny's post. I can definitely work on my the brevity of my writing, because I feel like I tend to get wordy. 

Cluster of My Controversy

In this blog post, I will share the cluster that I made to illustrate the debate surrounding Uber, and explain how it is formatted.

Thomas, Cortez. "Screenshot of Uber Debate Cluster". 9/11/2015 via Coogle

 The image above is the cluster that I made on Coogle, which I created to organize and display, in a visual way, the many aspects of the debate surrounding Uber. The stems that are coming from the center of my cluster are the main arguments currently occurring about Uber, and the branches going off of those topics of debate go into specifics, either supporting or disproving, that specific controversial claim of the original branch.

Reflection:
In this post, I will discuss how the clusters made by Breanna and Sam made me feel.

Both Breanna and Sam, like myself, chose to make their clusters on Coogle. Though the topics of their controversies were very  different, Breanna's and Sam's clusters were similar because they were both concise and well organized. After looking at their clusters, I see how I could have formatted my own cluster differently, by going into detail about who the specific speakers in each major group are. However, I think that the way that a person makes their cluster has to be beneficial to his or her own writing process, and I definitely think that the way my cluster is laid out will benefit me while drafting my QRG. Though I have never made an actual cluster like this one before, I do typically list my all of my ideas in a similar fashion. I believe that this is an essential step in my writing process; because it forces me to compose a specific plan about how I want my thoughts and research to be organized and executed.

Annotated Bibliography in APA Style

The following post will contain a link to my annotated bibliography, for all of the sources that I have used while researching the business controversy surrounding Uber.

Harris, Nick, "New York City." 9/22/2012 via Flickr. Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

To access my annotated bibliography on Google Docs click here.

In order to create all of these citations I used this APA Style Guide (in addition to the textbook), and used this site as a guide to cite my selected tweets. Also, I used this site as an example for my annotated bibliography.

Reflection:
After reading the annotated bibliographies by Breanna and Ann Emilie I have been able to solidify a lot of thoughts pertaining to annotated bibliographies and their many tendencies... as seen in post below.

It is now evident to me that annotated bibliography styles are similar in their own ways. Brianna and I both wrote our citations in APA, however Ann Emilie wrote in MLA format. The conventions of a QRG definitely are apparent throughout our posts. Besides concision, order, and the inclusion of future use these examples of an annotated bibliographies differed slightly, due to limitations and varying styles.

I also not acknowledge that a well executed annotated bibliography is a great tool to plan out ideas and gain knowledge about a topic, even if readers don't get to see all of them.  

Ideology in My Controversy

In the following post I will use the knowledge the I have obtained from reading many articles and writing three blog posts on the controversy of Uber, in order to analyze my controversy as a whole.

Hawk, Thomas, "Taxi Line." 2/28/2015 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic

Who is involved in the controversy?

• It is clear that this controversy is based around the bitter relationship between Uber and standard Taxi Companies.

Who are some of the major speakers/writers within these groups?

• Since the dispute between Uber and Taxi services has become a world-wide battle, there are no major speakers within these groups. The same power struggle is being fought and won by so many different individuals from different sides everyday. 

What kind of social/cultural/economical/political power does each group hold?

• Uber appeals to a younger, more hip, and economically aware generation , while standard taxi companies appeal to the more mature clientele, who are accustomed to a routine, and wouldn't appreciate the change in familiarity that Uber represents. More liberal individuals, who tend to appreciate evolutions within their culter, will side with Uber. While, taxi companies have more power within the conservative community.

What resources are available to different positions?

• Uber has the resources of technology, and driver freedom/discretion on its side. While typical taxi services have the resources of experience and reputability on their side.

What does each group value?

• Uber values the opinions of their customers, because it decides whether a driver is still fit to work for the company, based on these reviews. While the standard taxi companies value stability for their employees, as portrayed by their willingness to supply their emplyees with consistent and reliable benefits. 

Is there a power differential between the groups?

• The only real differences in power is that Uber has adapted to the technological age and seems to be providing a service that has been provided to the masses for many years, merely in a new and refreshing way.  

Is there any acknowledged common ground between groups?

• The only pieces of acknowledged common ground is that both Uber, and standard cab companies like to make money, and that they provide somewhat similar services to their clients.

Is there any unacknowledged common ground?

• Yes, if the two sides of this bitter debate just acknowledged that they would be more prosperous as allies than enemies. I feel that both sides could learn beneficial lessons from one another and that they could save their money, rather than spending it on legal fees.

Do the various groups listen to each other?

• It seems like the only way that these two groups will listen to each other is in the courtroom. The two groups make it seem as though there is no way to resolve conflicts, other than accusin one another of breaking the law.

Evaluation of Social Media Sources

In my last two posts, I evaluated both general internet sources and scholarly sources on the current Uber controversy. In this post I will consider this debate from a social media standpoint. Both of my sources are from Twitter, which I found by using Storify.

My first source is a tweet made by R. Shawn McBride, in which he refers to an article by The R. Shawn McBride Law Office.

Cortez, Thomas, "Screenshot R. Shawn McBride's tweet" 9/5/2015 via Twitter.

• Credibility: This tweeter definitely seems like a reliable source, especially because R. Shawn includes a link to his own law office.
• Location: R. Shawn McBride's law offices are located in New York and Dallas, but his tweet is referring to the Uber controversy in Connecticut. Although he doesn't live in Connecticut, R. Shawn's thoughts on the matter can still be taken seriously because the Uber debate is similar in most cities.
• Network: McBrides network seems pretty official. His followers and the people that he follows include lawyer, business men, various companies, and just regular (untitled) individuals, which definitely gives his account credibility.
• Content: Yes, the content in his tweet and the link provided can be corroborated by other sources, since many people are posting and publishing writings about the Uber debates.
• Contextual Updates: According to my findings, this user has only tweeted about Uber one other time, pertaining to a ruling made in California about Uber drivers being considered employees, rather than independent contractors, which is another nation-wide debate surrounding Uber drivers.
• Age: This user's account is fairly new, having been made this past October.
• Reliability: Although his account was made fairly recently, and has a very minuscule amount of followers, in comparison to the number users it follows, I still trust McBride, and think that his account is a reliable source of info.

My second source is a a tweet written by Elise Stolte, which can be seen below.

Cortez, Thomas, "Screenshot of Elise Stolte's tweet" 9/5/2015 via Twitter.

• Credibility: I can definitely corroborate with Elis Stolte's identity. She is an urban affairs reporter for the Edmonton Journal, located in Canada.
• Location: Since Elise's job relates to urban affairs, most of her tweets relate to the town in which she resides, Edmonton. Since the Uber debates that are occurring range from a variety of cities and nations, Elise's thoughts are relevant to the Uber controversies. 
• Network: Elise has a surplus of followers, in comparison to the amount of people she follows, which is  good sign of credibility. Some of her followers include individuals who live in Edmonton, in addition to politicians, radio channel producers, and various organizations.
• Content: Yes, the content of this tweet can be proven to be true by other sources, because wherever Uber controversies are taking place, which is in a lot of locations, many people are sharing the up-to-date details about the events that are occurring.
• Contextual Updates: Elise has tweeted several times about Uber, and the many decisions being made in Edmonton regarding the controversial company. This just further proves that the Uber debates are wide-spread and are not being taken lightly.
• Age: Elise's account was created in January 2009, which is a good "age" to have in the realm of Twitter.
• Reliability: Based on all of the analysis of Elise in the post above, I feel that her reliability is essentially indisputable.

Evaluation of Scholarly Sources

In my previous post I explored the major controversy surrounding Uber, by looking at general internet sources, however now I will study the controversy more by examining two scholarly sources on the topic.

L.A. Foodie, "Uber $20 ride credit gift card." 4/2/2013 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

My first scholarly source is called "Uber the Job Destroyer" .

• Purpose: The main purpose of this writing is to bash Uber. The author, having been a taxi driver in the past, uses a biased approach to point out all of the flaws in Uber's seemingly ideal company structure. The author essentially wants a rally to be made against Uber.
• Published: This periodical was published by the Nation Company, in The Nation Magazine, on 2/6/2015.
• Sources: I was unable to find additional sources for this selected work.
• Author: Jon Liss is the author of this work. Liss is the executive director of New Virginia Majority, which is a social justice advocacy group. From 1983-1984, he served as an elected leader of a taxi drivers association.
• Audience: I believe that the intended audience of this article are the young adults who utilize Uber's services the most. The author strategically discusses the problems that Uber has, in order to try and make people feel bad for using Uber's services. Additionally, I think that taxi-drivers are another goal audience. The author wants to open the eyes of his cab company employed taxi driving colleagues, in order to enable a revolution against their enemy, Uber.
• Found through: I found this source by using Academic Search Complete, a reliable scholarly database.

My second scholarly source is called "High Plains Lyfter".

• Purpose: The purpose of this article is to point out the fact that Uber has been so successful in the past few years, because it has appealed to the youth and the technological age. In order for taxi companies to stand a chance against Uber, they must become real competition to the seemingly unstoppable force called Uber.
• Published: This article was published by Emmis Communications Corportation, in Texas Monthly, in January 2015.
• Sources: No sources were cited for this article.
• Author: Lauren Steffy wrote this article. He is an award winning author, public speaker, and newspaper columnist.
• Audience: I don't believe that this article has any target age range of listeners in mind. Instead, I think its intended to educate anyone who is willing to learn about the major shift in the taxi industry that has occurred recently, and point out what traditional cab companies are doing in response to the new competition.
• Found through: I also found this article by conducting a search on Academic Search Complete.

Evaluation of General Sources

After searching the internet for a current controversy in my field of study, which is business, I found one that is based around a very current and hot topic right now, Uber. In this post I will look deeply into the two general sources that I found, which are based off of this debate.

Tdeg15. "Infographic showing places where Uber has faced legal challenges" 2/6/2015 via Wikipedia. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

The first source that I found is from the Hartford Courant, titled "In First Year, Uber Snaring Fares in Connecticut"

• URL: The URL ends in ".com", which means that this is a general site for the public. Although the Hartford Courant isn't well known on a national scale, it is the #1 newspaper in central Connecticut, which gives it some more credibility.
• Author: The author's name is Don Stacom. He has written for a variety of sources in his long career and seems quite reputable.
• Last Updated: The site was last updated when the article was published on April 25, 2015. Although it has been a few months since publication, this article's content is still relevant, because the heated debate over Uber is still occurring. 
• Purpose: The purpose of this article is to inform the reader about what Uber is, and how it services its clients. It talks about the growing popularity of the company, but also addresses the disdain coming from taxi drivers and taxi companies, and their demand for some legislative decisions to be made on this matter.
• Graphics: There is one large image at the top of the article. It is a picture of the windshield of an Uber vehicle, which makes sense based on the content of the article.
• Position on Subject: The way that this article is written seems unbiased. The author merely relays the facts about what Uber is, and the controversy that surrounds it currently. There doesn't seem to be any personal opinion interjected into the article. The information in the article can definitely be verified by numerous online articles that contain similar information.
• Links: There are numerous related articles spread out over the page, however there are no links that direct the reader to a source that the author used.

The second source that I found is from The Huffington Post, titled "Uber Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit By Connecticut Taxi Companies" 

• URL: This URL also ends in ".com", which signifies that it is for commercial intent. The Huffington Post is known to be a liberal entity, which may result in some bias. However, it is a well-respected and recognized site.
• Author: The author if this article is named Jonathan Stempel. He is a well-educated individual, and has written quite a few books, and many articles for various websites.
• Last Updated: This article was hasn't been updated since its publication on August 13, 2015. This date is recent so it shows that the content definitely isn't out of date.
• Purpose: This text, much like my first source, is made to inform readers. This article describes the current legal situation of Uber in Connecticut. The article discusses a case, demanding that Uber should be forced follow the same regulations as regular taxi companies, which has recently been rejected by a U.S district judge in Hartford.
• Graphics: There is only one graphic within this article. It is a picture of the Uber logo, outside of the company's New York location.
• Position on Subject: This article does not appear to pick a side on this matter. The author merely described the plaintiff's argument and the judge's ruling, without including any personal opinion. All the information in this article can be verified because it is public knowledge.
• Links: Other than related articles for reading, no other links were provided by the author. I suppose this is one example of why scholarly sources are considered to be more reputable than general online sources.

My Discipline

Flazingo Photos. "Individual in a Suit." 4/27/2014 via Flickr. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

In this post I will answer the provided questions about my field of study, which is Pre-Business. 

1. What do students in your program learn how to do?
Students who choose to study Pre-Business at the Eller College of Management here at the U of A get a well rounded education. For the first two years as a Pre-Business major students learn about general business topics including economics, accounting, financing, ethics, and management, just to name a few. Once a student is accepted into Eller, at the start of his or her junior year, is the time when he or she will be able select which of the nine specific majors they want to study in more depth and  get a degree in. The topics of study include: accounting, business administration, business economics, business management, entrepreneurship, financing, management information systems, marketing, and operations management.

2. What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?
One of the best things about being a business major is that there is no set job that one must seek after receiving a business degree. The job path that a business major selects is based off of his or her personal interests, specialty, and his or her long-term goals. Additionally, a business major is not even confined to find a job in one of the majors listed in question one. An individual with a business degree can decide to go into law, entertainment, teaching, and many other fields, that build upon the knowledge that his or her business degree enlightened him or her with.

3. What drew you to this field?

I have always really enjoyed math. Being able to effectively solve problems in an efficient way is very rewarding. Also, I have always liked handling money, and making money lol. Additionally, I believe that I have good leadership skills, which I think is essential in being successful in any field, especially business. For all of these reasons and more I have been drawn to the business field.

4. Who are the leaders/most exciting people involved in your field right now? Why? These could be individual people or specific companies, organizations, businesses or non-profits.

• I believe that one of the leaders in the business field right now is Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks. Starbucks is a world-wide brand, loved by millions, but it always stays fresh in the mind of its followers, due to intelligent marketing and business choices. Shultz also treats his employees, even part-timers, in a respectable by providing them with stock options, health benefits, and college tuition reimbursement, just to name a few partner perks.
• I think another business leader that deserves recognition is Tim Cook, the new Apple CEO. Cook had big shoes to fill, following the death of Steve Jobs, however I believe that he has handled the pressure quite well. He is running Apple with an innovative and creative mindset, which Jobs would be proud of.
• Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, is another leader in business that is worthy of respect. Bezos has created a company that is now one of, if not, one of the biggest retailers on the market. Also, Bezos has created many new jobs by hiring thousands of individuals to work in his many Amazon warehouses. 

5. What are the leading academic/scholarly journals in your field? Where are they published? Give us the names and locations of at least 3. 

• Academy of Management Journal is published by The Academy of Management
• Barron's is published by Dow Jones
• The Economist is published by The Economist Group

Reflection:

I really had an interest in what Lauren and Jessi had to say about their disciplines of study, and I will talk about my thoughts about their entries in this post.

Lauren, Jessi, and myself all plan to study very different topics in college, however I am still able to see clear similarities between their thoughts about the future and my own. In her post, Lauren discussed how until recently she had no idea what she wanted to study in college. This made me feel a lot better about myself because I just recently came to the conclusion that business seems like the right major for me. I usually get stressed out whenever someone is able to list all of their life goals and have a grand plan that they want to adhere to, therefore it was really nice to read Lauren's post. 

Jessi's post was also reassuring for me, but in a completely different way than Lauren's. I enjoyed the fact that Jessi mentioned that there are a plethora of career options for a physiology major, because it reminded me about the many professional paths that a business major can take. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the many job possibilities that a business major will have to chose from. Therefore, it was nice to know that their are other majors that leave graduates with a lot of optiona, and that it is okay to embrace the many opportunities that a general field of study can provide me with.