"Multiple- Choice Romney" by Roger Cohen

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/opinion/global/multiple-choice-romney.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Response to "Why Men Fail"

David Brooks presented a valid opinion in the argument of “Why Men Fail.”  Due to basic trends and statistics, men remain stagnate or fall short in their careers while women are rapidly overtaking most of the occupations.  Brooks gave several logos examples and evidence of his statements.  The origin of the problem for men begins with elementary and high school education; boys earn three- quarters of D’s and F’s.  In college, only 40 percent of men receive their Bachelor’s degree.  This affected the work force: women dominate 12 out of 15 occupations.  Women have more skills and men fall short of the skills needed for the job.  This topic represents pathos because it has a significant emotional impact on men because of the social hierarchy in the past generations.  Women no longer fit in the stereotype of a “stay at home” mother.  In current standings, they are classified as working mothers.  The article discusses the success of women: adaptability.  Men are still holding on to the old, traditional ways of society.  They linger for a job to appear while women take the initiative to become educated.  More education provides the acquired skills for a high- paying occupation.  Hanna Rosin, author of “End of Men,” states, “Women see a new social context, and they flexibly adapt to new circumstances.”  Women do not have the enormous pride men possess, which makes it easier for women to change.   This article contained various amounts of sources and statistics, which allowed the reader to believe his statements as valid.  The creditability of the writer was also strong because the article was from the New York Times, which was a solid representation of ethos.   This article was well organized and provided all the elements in order to capture and gain the respect of the reader. 

Political Debate

Both candidates presented their plans with strong examples and evidence of why their plan best suited the American population.  Romney began the debate strong because he listed 5 parts of his plan to create jobs: energy independence, more trade with Latin America, enhance education for the proper training of jobs, balance the budget, and champion small businesses.  He developed logos in a well-organized manner, which gains respect of the audience. In terms of creating jobs, Romney made a clear statement against Obama when he discussed the tax rates on small businesses.  He stated that Obama wanted to raise the tax rate from 35% to 40%, which makes it more difficult for small businesses to thrive and create more jobs.  Obama was also stressing the importance of education.  Romney was in full agreement with Obama as well as providing the evidence to establish strong education.  He established solid school systems in Massachusetts, which made them the number one schools on America.  This establishes ethos because of his experience as Governor of Massachusetts.  Romney’s closing statement was what captured the attention of the audience.   He discussed what he will do and why his plan was more successful than Obama’s plan.  Romney stated, “ There has been chronic unemployment with 43 straight months of unemployment.”  He also said that if he becomes president he would help create 12 million more jobs.  Romney provided action in his closing statement, which overpowered Obama’s statement of working hard.     

Questions for Mrs. DiPrince

1. How can I express ethos (creditability) about the president if I do not know background information of the candidate?
2. How would you cite the video?
3.How many peer reviews do I need?

Visual Analysis on Newsweek's "Muslim Rage"

            This picture can be interpreted in many different ways.  On the cover, the first visual element was the facial expressions of the crowd.  The man that stood out the most was the one in the back screaming.  He portrayed extreme passion and attracted the reader in the article.  I was contemplating whether he was stabbed in the back or he was screaming out his beliefs.  Another visual element was the different hand positions.  Some individuals were in a fist form and other people were holding a flag.  Another man was gripping the shoulder of the person next to him.

Although this photo demonstrated strong emotions, I was unaware of the event.  The text read, “Muslim Rage,” which I possessed no knowledge of.  The article portrayed a biased nature.  The picture expressed a great amount of negative energy and encouraged hatred towards the Muslim religion.  This picture only showed a few men and not all Muslim followers participate and believe in the outrage.  This article was written by someone who gained first- hand experience.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a creditable author and Newsweek is a well-known source, which represented the ethos of this article.  The sub text “How I survived it; How we can end it” provided both ethos and pathos.  This text showed that the author experienced the outrage and developed a solution as well as created a significant emotional appeal.  The audience either put themselves in the Muslims shoes or built hatred on the entire race.  The twitter comments also played a significant role in the responses to the magazine cover.  Several people critiqued the situation and critiqued the Muslim culture.  Some people wrote their deep thoughts of the situation.  The overall opinion was that most Americans and Muslim Americans were humorous but very disrespectful to the Muslim culture.         

Visual Analysis on Obama's Presidential Campaign Video

Presidential Campaign videos need to be both productive in their argument and visually appealing to the audience.  Barack Obama presented these qualities in a variety of his videos, the most engaging and well-organized presentation was the video called “The Top 5 Reasons Mitt Romney won’t release more tax returns.”  The various types of video clips from the campaign video were the first visual element that captured my attention.  The video was short and concise, but they were full of color, which appealed to the human interest.  The text was full of simplicity, which gave the reader a focal point and valid arguments to consider.

It provided five reasons of its claim that Mitt Romney will not release more tax reasons.  The first reason was that Romney pays a lower tax than the middle class.  It showed a clip from the ABC News, a woman elaborated on the issue.  She said “a lot more middle class have to pay a lot more incoming tax then him.”  Romney responded, “ I have to pay 15%.”  The second reason was that Romney has millions of dollars in offshore accounts.  This information was presented by another clip from the ABC News.  They claimed that Romney held a secret company in Bermuda.  He had twelve offshore tax haven funds in the Cayman Islands.  The third reason was that Romney used loopholes to pay less in taxes.  A reporter from the ABC News said, “If Romney will try to avoid a 15% tax, what else will he try to avoid, that is a pretty low tax rate for him.”  The fourth reason was that under Paul Ryan, Romney would pay only 1% in taxes.  There would be a 4.3 trillion dollar cut for the wealthy.  The final reason stated was that Romney thinks coming clean will hurt him in the election.  The video presented coverage of a CNN interview with Mitt Romney.  The interviewer asked Romney why the people of North Carolina could not see last year’s tax return.  Romney responded, “cause I want to make sure I beat president Obama.” 

These reasons reflect ethos, pathos, and logos.  These accusations of Romney are from creditable sources: ABC News and CNN.  These 5 reasons provided a significant amount of emotional appeal to the people and enough evidence to validate the argument against Mitt Romney.  At the end of the video, it stated, “What else is he hiding, only Mitt Romney knows.”  Although the video was short, the graphic designs and the pictures of the video provided significant powerful meanings, which made the audience critically re-consider whether Romney is truthful in his endeavors.  Most importantly will he be trustworthy if he became the President of the United States.    

Choices 2.0 Chapter 6 Rhetorical Précis

In the educational book “Choices 2.0: Situations for College Writing” (2010), Joe Marshall Hardin asserts that the media has a significant influence on the global cultures of today’s society.  Hardin supports his claim by discussing the various types of media, television, newspaper, and advertisements. He explained on the persuasion aspect that advertisements possess a customer to buy not necessarily what they need the product for but how will the product make the customer’s life easier.  His purpose is to inform his audience on the media’s persuasion in order to present a media critique, which is about making product choices.  The media critique is not only the negative critique, but also to discover the aspect of how the media or the product works.  He has a modernistic tone, he provides numerous examples of media as well as provides steps in writing a productive media critique.