Reflection on writing paper #3 and how it was different from paper #2

Paper #3 was tasked to us as a paper where we had to persuade the reader of out point of view, this is different from the second paper which required us to analyze ads. The review of others papers could be seen as similar to the second paper in that we are analyzing other's views, heck we might be able to write a second paper on the third. But the main reason the third was different was because we were presenting our own opinions and providing evidence to prove our point.

Final English Paper

Patrick

Kulfan

Ending the war on games

We have all heard the stories, maybe some of you have experienced them. A kid finally snaps and half a school winds up dead. Then the police canvas the kid’s room and find that he enjoyed horror novels, rock music, and video games. The story then hits the news. The killer’s face is displayed and the discussion starts. Do video games cause violence in teens? I’ve been gaming my entire life. I remember playing “Putt Putt Travels Through Time” when I was younger. After a few years it was World of Warcraft, then numerous other games. So many it’s take days to talk about each one. So the question “do video games cause violence in teens?” really hits home for me. I firmly believe that this is not the case. I feel this way because throughout my years of gaming I’ve never felt the need to kill another person, and I’ve heard many opinions from people I respect that believe the same way.

So why have games been the focus of so much controversy? I believe there are a few reasons. First, many video games have a display of violence in one way or another and often this is graphic. In the media, video gaming is always attached to something negative, school shootings, teen behavior, bad grades just to name a few. Many of these issues can be attributed to other causes as well, but that doesn’t always occur.

When people think of violence in video games what comes to mind are the gory “FINISH HIM!” scenes in Mortal Kombat or the blood soaked battlefields of Call of Duty. If used correctly, this form of conflict can be a challenge that the player has to overcome to get their reward. Killing or fighting is used in the majority of games to offer a sense of challenge. This is often displayed in different ways, in Mario the killing is stomping on Goombas whilst the challenge would be navigating over the obstacles including the many enemies. In games like Call of Duty this changes to moving between cover and killing tougher and tougher enemies that get in your way. Fundamentally they are both the same thing. Clear x amount of obstacles to reach the ending point for a reward. In Mario it’s the gratifying sound of sliding down the end flagpole, in Call of Duty it’s the start of another story sequence.

I do understand where other people are coming from when they talk about how games promote violence. This ending gratification could be seen as a type of operant conditioning where killing an enemy then being granted the points or gear of the fallen enemy is the positive reinforcement teaching people that killing x gives you y. Yes this strategy eventually teaches you that killing an enemy in-game gives you a reward, but the keyword here is in-game. Does cooking in a game make you a cook in real life? Does playing a lawyer in a game make you a lawyer? No. Thus killing in a game does not make you a killer.

This is shown through trend lines presented by Max Fisher on The Washington Post’s website. The first graph shows the expected trend line if there was a relation between gun violence and game purchases. The second graph, off the same website, shows the actual trend line tracking video game spending versus gun-related violent events. As you can see there is no relation between the two. Instead there is a general decrease in gun violence versus game spending per capita actually suggesting that games reduce crime. This same theory actually has a basis in psychology as well.

In an article published by Polygon, authored by Colin Campbell, he presents evidence of a reduction in overall homicides coinciding with popular game releases. In support of this Campbell writes "We always have to be careful with correlational data." Markey added, "Correlation doesn't mean causation. But we haven't just looked at sales of games and violent crimes. We have taken into account trends in the data. We remove stuff that typically happens, like a spike in murders during summer and high sales of games near the Holidays, and it's still negative. To me what is most amazing is that it is never positive. It is always statistically negative."

As I mentioned this has a basis in psychology, and just common sense in general. When a game is released what are would-be criminals doing who are fans of a game? They are playing said game. Thus they aren’t out on the streets committing crimes. On the psychology side, what if instead of potentially hurting someone in real life they can take out all the anger and stress of real life by playing a game instead? An article on the True Stress Management website presents an idea that games can relieve stress for some types of people. “Video games allow Type A personalities to get enough of a mental challenge to be able to relax, but not get too bored or overly stressed. So it’s like giving that sugar filled kid a toy to play with. It gives him something to do so that he’s occupied, but doesn’t go overboard.” In my case, I’ve used games to distance myself from reality. If I’m angry, I can take a step back and immerse myself in a virtual world, one that allows me to de stress in an environment that won’t be permanently damaged.

I do understand where people who are not gamers are coming from. Games like Hatred (a sociopath mass-murder game) or Postal (A murder game) really leave a negative impression on the gaming industry. If used correctly though, the majority of games can be used as a learning experience, one to be enjoyed by the whole family. What’s required is for parents to take heed of the ESRB rating system. It provides an easy system to determine whether a game is meant for the age your child is at. But often this doesn’t happen, my belief is that parents know these ratings exist but haven’t grown up in a world where games exist thus aren’t accommodated to the fact that games can be mature. “Mr Freund suggested that the problem was that parents felt disconnected from the world of video games and so showed little interest in this aspect of their children's lives.” Excerpt from a BBC news article on the subject.

Thus it’s my belief that there are misunderstandings across the board, from consumers to developers nobody can understand anyone else’s views. For this to truly end parents from this generation must make steps to research what games are available and correct for their children to play. The media has to stop associating games with violence. Finally, these studies have to be released to the public and be easily found by those looking to purchase games. Games don’t cause violence, they’ve just been misunderstood. Games can be a positive influence on society if we let them, we just have to remove this misplaced hate that is focused on them.

Bibliography

Fisher, Max. "Ten-country Comparison Suggests There’s Little or No Link between Video Games and Gun Murders." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Campbell, Colin. "Do Violent Video Games Actually Reduce Real-world Crime?" Polygon. Polygon, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

"Can Video Games Relieve Stress? - True Stress Management." True Stress Management. N.p., 02 June 2014. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

Hermida, Alfred. "Parents 'ignore Game Age Ratings'" BBC News. BBC, 24 June 2005. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

English in-class: Analyzing Arguments

1st:

1. Planned Parenthood (the organization) is important
1. she is trying to get the readers to support Planned Parenthood, or to at least understand the controversy pointed at it.
2. The thesis is clearly stated, it can be seen in the first paragraph near the end.
2. She uses the support provided by facts presented by Planned Parenthood along with articles presenting the problems .
1. The controversy is null, Planned Parenthood is unique in applying sex ed education and treatment. Then debunking of the controversy behind Planned Parenthood.
2. Facts about how Planned Parenthood provides assistance to women, the facts and statistics from Planned Parenthood’s website, articles from news sites, and a personal anecdote.
3. The reasons presented are factual and work to convince the reader that yes, this is an important subject
3. She seems pretty even handed on the issue taking the controversy into account and dealing with it accordingly.
1. Yes there are, mainly on the second page going forward there are mentions of the controversy faced by Planned Parenthood and why it doesn’t matter
2. She acknowledges them and responds to them reasonably
3. She treats other arguments respectively.
4. Yes she does, though she avoids countering the controversy she presents why Planned Parenthood is important and why the controversy should be overlooked
4. She uses the sources presented by Planned Parenthood along with an article from a news site and a personal anecdote.
1. Each is portioned through the paper and used to support arguments or present another piece of opinion to argue through ethos or pathos
2. Planned Parenthood is biased towards it’s own success but could be seen as fairly credible, CNN is a news site and on this issue could be seen as fairly unbiased thus is credible, and her own anecdote is presented fairly biased but that’s because it’s her friend’s opinion
3. They are, her friend’s anecdote was recent.
5. It seems to be from a neutral if not slightly biased towards the side of Planned Parenthood talking to the audience in a matter considered peer to peer.
1. She does not and presents information in the first paragraph that provides some backstory
2. I felt pretty excluded reading the paper, not that it was a bad thing, because it wasn’t really aimed at me
3. It was a topic that I’m not really familiar with thus not really.

2nd:

1. Abortion is bad and should not be allowed (simplified)
1. That abortion is cruel and should not be allowed
2. No stated thesis yet.
2. She uses scientific evidence of the development of a baby, she uses opinions and beliefs for the rest.
1. Scientific evidence, arguing towards ethos, mentioning that it should be a crime akin to murder.
2. Facts and examples are used to backup the main point.
3. She needs to use more facts over opinions or find anecdotes to prove her opinions
3. She has examples of arguments from both sides.
1. Yes and there doesn’t seem to be any mention of dealing with them.
2. She doesn’t seem to refute or acknowledge them as the paper is still an outline.
3. She seems to treat them respectfully.
4. Possibly a few sweeping generalizations.
4. She has no stated sources yet.
1. There seems to be sources used in the main argument and they are used to reinforce her argument.
2. As they are not stated I cannot check if they are credible
3. or current
5. She addresses from a neutral point in the outline from a peer to peer standpoint.
1. No and presents information to get you up to speed.
2. Exclude, very little use of “we” language.
3. As I’m not very up to date on the issue I don’t really have any opinions on the subject.

In-Class Video Game Violence Paper Sources, incorporating sources excercise

http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ESA-Essential-Facts-2015.pdf\

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/ten-country-comparison-suggests-theres-little-or-no-link-between-video-games-and-gun-murders/

http://www.cfr.org/society-and-culture/us-gun-policy-global-comparisons/p29735

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/crucial-conversations/201204/the-media-is-accomplice-in-school-shootings

http://consumer.healthday.com/mental-health-information-25/behavior-health-news-56/violent-video-games-don-t-influence-kids-behavior-study-698040.html

• On The Washington Post’s website Max Fisher analyzes the graph displaying video game purchases vrs gun violence and finds that the trend line does not match the expected trend line if there was a relation between gun violence and video games.
• On the Health Day’s website, Randy Dotinga mentions this in regards to a study on the relation between video games and teen health “The researchers found that the 22 kids who played video games the most each day were the likeliest to have behavioral problems, exhibit hyperactivity and have trouble academically, although the effects were "quite small in magnitude," Przybylski said. He added that there's no way to know whether kids are drawn to video games because of their personalities, or whether video games alter their personalities.”
• The article on the Council on Foreign Relations’s website mentions this in regards to gun violence in the US “But many gun rights proponents say these statistics do not indicate a cause-and-effect relationship and note that the rates of gun homicide and other gun crimes in the United States have dropped since highs in the early 1990s[Though this probably isn’t because of video games].”

Bibliography:

Becerril, Daniel. "U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Dotinga, Randy. "Violent Video Games Don't Influence Kids' Behavior: Study." Consumer HealthDay. HealthDay, 3 Apr. 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Fisher, Max. "Ten-country Comparison Suggests There’s Little or No Link between Video Games and Gun Murders." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

11/19/15 In-Class Spriggs - Articles

take a position early, explain your position

explain your topic’s relevance to the average reader’s real life

present a few reasons, support your reasons with facts

identify another point of view and respond to it

identify real world applications/repercussions of your position

explain important terms/ideas relevant to your topic, pictures can help

personal experience is a powerful way to establish credibility

providing background information also establishes authority over your subject

use of statistics can be very convincing

discrediting of opposing sides done carefully is good

use of emotional persuasion is very dependant upon subject and audience

author should be aware of pathos/logos/ethos and which will be most persuasive for their topic

11/12/15 - In-Class HW Discussion

·         Overwhelming use of pathos

·         Use of fear, making us scared of what could happen

·         Sad background music the whole time

·         Police officer’s graphic descriptions meant to be disturbing

·         Playing on sympathy

·         Family members feeling guilt, sister talking about sending the text that ended a life

·          Give background information about the characters, create an attachment to the people who died

·         Showing brain damage guy with his doctor, having him trying to talk  about it to invoke sympathy

·         No logos used, no statistics or logic

·         No ethos, never take the position that the good thing to do is to not text and drive

·         Never directly state their message, their message is clear and important enough that it doesn’t need to be said

·         showing one person at a time, crying is more personal and emotional than many people together

·         emphasis on the “last text” showing the message they were sending/looking at when they crashed

·         message is that one text > your life

·         policeman “it never gets easier” 

11/11/15 - "The Last Text" Video Analysis

• soft music in the background
• disturbing details from police officers at the scene
• "young girl"
• "she was going to graduate the next day"
• "all because of a sens-less text message"
• story from her sister talking about her history, specifically texting
• she always texted people
• gruesome story about how she was killed from her sister who sent the text
• talking about how she felt she was at fault for killing her sister
• story from another victim, talking about how he was the passenger in a car crash. Now is incapacitated
• The text message that changed his life "Where r"
• Another victim, Maria. Stories from her parent and sister, how nice she was.
• the family and friends gathering for Maria's 19th birthday, or what would've been
• up-close shot of her mother crying
• picture of her in the hospital room
• "Where u at" three simple words
• payed the ultimate price for her actions
• Police man saying "it never gets easier, and it won't get any easier"
• Final shot of the three victim's relatives holding up the words that killed their loved ones "Where r", "Where u at", "Yeah"

This message from AT&T is intended for teenage viewers. It's message is to show you the story of many lives that were changed because of the death of two and the life-changing injuries of a third. It gets this message across mainly emotionally using very little statistics nor really appealing to ethics. The emotional parts of the video mainly consist of the music used throughout, that being a quiet and sad melody, and the stories of the lives that were changed forever from seeing these accidents.

How Things Mean

• Album Covers: The Eminem/Jay Z, Jay Z is looking straight at the audience while eminem is looking above the camera, possibly pointing to different personalities. Contrasting colors between the two artists possibly conveying a “conflict” in the audience. Also possibly showing the color of the two artists. Pixie Lott, the album cover shows her(Pixie Lott) seductively looking at the audience, possibly presenting that the album is going to be suggestive. Appealing towards both female and male audiences because of the “seductive” look and the albums look mirroring that of a makeup magazine cover.
• Rolex & Hello Kitty watches: Wealthy/mature vr Poor/childish. The Rolex is the picture of wealth, it’s got diamonds, fancy watchwork, it’s an elegant design. Compared to the hello kitty watch which lacks detail and finesse, it’s lacking the design and materials of the Rolex showing that it was thrown together with less care. It’s suggested through general design and color choice, the color of the Rolex ranges from white to gray at most while the hello kitty watch is mostly pink. This divergence in color choices shows a difference in maturity between the audience of the two watches.

Intro:Album covers are ways in which artists prequel there pieces of music.

BP1: Symbolism in Jay Z/Eminem album cover

-Colors

-Eye position

BP2: Symbolism in Pixie Lott album cover

-Eye position

-Hand position

BP3: Contrast between the depictions from the symbolism in the album cover

-The contrasting eye positions and picture qualities imply that the Pixie Lott album is more seductive and flirtatious due to its smooth edges while the Eminem/jay z album is more pixilated and rough which implies a blunt and direct form of music.

Conclusion paragraph

Arguments In-class 11/10/15

• The speaker, presents the positions of saying the “N-word” from the perspective of a white man and a black man, he also brings up the perspective of saying redneck jokes while being a redneck and while not being one, he then mentions jewish jokes from a non-jewish perspective and a jewish perspective. The speaker only really argues from the position of a white man and he’s arguing expecting a white audience.
• Our group found it pretty persuasive, he represented both sides fairly well, he refuted the other side. You can jokingly call someone a redneck without them getting angry, then said that he’d get in a fight if someone outside of south Texas said redneck. He mentioned his past and his book, that’s it. Our group felt like it was pretty thorough, he considered the opposing side, thus improving his arguments.
• No, he does not he states from the beginning that saying the “N-word” is wrong for a white man, his language reinforces that. Special interest might be to get his book to sell. He does consider opposing views, he uses the views of someone born outside south texas, and as non-jewish. He is his own source thus it reflects his own viewpoint.
• Our group interpreted the publisher as the Boston College that the speaker was lecturing at. We determined that this could’ve influenced his speech, thus influencing him to use words and statements more tuned to a younger yet educated audience. He was acting liberal.
• No, our group did not have any outstanding sources other than our own personal opinions on the subject.
• Our group believed that it did both, most of us believed that in the right context it could be seen as a friendly joke, and we all agreed that you wouldn’t say it to someone you had just met. We believe that it mostly supported our thesis. It represents a point to mainly acknowledge.
• The speech seemed to be focused on a mainly white audience, stating “Let the blacks figure it out on their own…”. Our group was definitely a part of that audience. The main point was to argue should white people say the “N-word”

Coke ad Analysis Essay

Coca-Cola: The Red in Red, White and Blue

Soda has been part of American culture since the day of its invention. Just think of all the varied brands that you can name: Dr. pepper, Sprite, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and many others. Because soda has been rooted in American culture for so long, its ads have reflected the beliefs at the time and, in turn, America has affected the make and design of Coca-Cola. So why has Coca-Cola become such a staple of American culture and what in the ads attracts people to buy their drink?

For instance, this ad was a paper poster printed back in 1914. The first thing noticeable about this ad is the lack of words, instead the ad grabs your attention with a picture of the ideal woman at the time this ad was printed, your eyes get drawn down to the Coca-Cola bottle in her hand. The ad also shows this woman wearing a large hat with green plants in the background almost reaching around toward the front. It shows a picturesque warm day shown through the choice of colors and clothing this woman is wearing. Then there in her hands is the Coke, which as the focus of the ad, is implied to be the source of this woman's enjoyment. So in summary this ad is presenting us a picture of a happy woman sipping on a coke to relieve the heat from a hot day outside.

At this time in Coca-Cola's history it has just been a short ten years since Coca-Cola began putting up outdoor wall advertisements. Coca-Cola was originally sold as a dietary suppllmant. The healthy, youthgul woman surrounded by plant life implies drinking Coke will make you healthy. A few things this ad could reflect about culture at the time is, more obviously, the fashion choices and the way the “perfect woman” looked at the time. This ad was probably marketed toward upper class men, and it seems to do this by showing the perfect woman and the style of the clothes that that woman is wearing. It’s also worth mentioning that this woman is the picture of vim and vigour and possibly is meant to mean that drinking Coke makes you young again. All in all this ad screams refreshing from the cool colors in the background to the ice cold Coca-cola in the woman's hand.

The era of painterly ads gave way to ads aimed more at getting information across directly. For example this ad, which was printed in 1957, shows a picture of what looks like a party of sorts with two couples and a woman eating popcorn and drinking Coca-cola. In front we see a man and a woman sharing a glass of Coca-cola behind them we see three other people, a man in a white and blue sweater crouching down in front of the fireplace, a women is a red sweater beside him and finally the woman in the white and gray shirt back near the window. Underneath the picture is about a paragraph of writing starting with “There's always good company in the good taste of Coke!...” and talking about how the refreshing taste of coke makes people “sparkle”.

This ad seems to be intended for people around the working age, because all of the people in this image seem to be close to that age. It also might be that because Coke originally had Coccaine in it this stigma might have carried over to later advertisements even though it was removed, ergo the lack of children in the picture possibly showing a time when soda was meant more for adults than children. Changes from the first ad include an overall slight change in art style moving away from painterly, the Coke bottle has gotten slimmer and is closer to it's trademarked look of today, the ad is wordier than the last, possibly because it was posted inside, in a restaurant, and not meant to be read from across the street.

What can be inferred from this ad about the time period is that small parties like these might've been very common at the time, especially so if Coke is marketing towards it. It's also worth mentioning the white outside the windows and the baggy shirts or sweaters that the families are wearing might point towards this ad having been released in or around the Holidays. The paragraph below the picture talks about how “There's a special personality that belongs to Coca-cola alone, that invites good times... good humor.” this passage seems to be passing Coke off as being a unique beverage, one that's refreshing for the party, and that you can share with your friends and family.

Speaking of sharing with friends and family, this Coke ad was released just recently, around 2015. The name of this Coca-cola campaign is stated on the left, “Share a Coke with...”. Compared to the two earlier ads this one has had a huge change in the art style, with the only similar thing being the Coca-cola logo on a bottle cap which can be seen in the second ad. This ad shows the slogan of the campaign on the side then the line of Coca-Cola bottles all with the “Coca-Cola” removed and replaced with names of people, friends, families, etc. Also notable is the #ShareaCoke at the bottom right which is apart of the huge Twitter culture, Coca-Cola wants you to tweet this for free marketing and to “Share a Coke”.

This ad reflects today’s culture fairly well, following a very minimalist style which has become the staple of advertisements today, say a lot with a picture and less with words. The slogan “Share a Coke” is used by Coke in this campaign to promote unity and trying not to come off as a conspiracy theorist. It's used to make you think about others when purchasing a bottle, thus leading you to purchase another for your friend, or your father or someone else. It could also be something you’re more attatched to because your name is on it.

All of these ads reveal the culture at the time and the way of thinking that prompted the release of these ads. In 1914 people were more drawn to a picture and this hand painted ad probably drew people's attention and prompted them to think “My, that Coke does look refreshing, maybe I'll get one” without actually saying anything at all. In 1957 the ad was focused to around the same audience but to actually sell the product in bulk, more or less. It offered a short paragraph talking about the “refreshing taste of Coke” and how it fostered a good party. Finally in 2015 the ad shows today's tactics of trying to get you to buy more for you, your parents and your friends.

Coke has been changing its advertisements to fit the world at the time, if I were to show you an ad from around the start of WWI it'd show a man preparing for war. If I were to show you an ad from WWII there would be a bit of propaganda thrown in. As the American way of life changes so do the personas of the items we consume on a daily basis be it Coca-Cola or that shiny new pair of shoes and yet as these items change to fit the culture at the time these very items morph and transform the very culture itself. These changes will only lead to more changes, and it's pretty easy to say that products like Coca-Cola have shaped American History almost as much as the people itself.

Sources group project

In-class Sources Group ProjectVERA. Addicting info, 7 Of The Dumbest Things Trump Has Ever Said To Disprove Global Warming. June 18, 1015. Nov 5, 2015.

"The Concept of global warming" Trump directly states here that he disbelieves in global warming, a global phenom that is warming up the planet due to the increase of greenhouse gases because of the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Scientists around the world all agree that this is happening and we need to find a way to stop it.

"Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It's becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years."

This quote from National Geographic's "What is Global Warming" article is talking about what global warming is, Trump believe this isn't happening and he apparently blames the Chinese for the "concept". But it is happening, the reason I chose this tweet is because there is a plethora of sources from scientists around the world talking about this subject. This research paper talks about global warming and the sources that go into the study of it. It is my belief that global warming is real, and I've come to this conclusion from the sources I've read/heard and from the changes I see around me, now it's just up to others to do the same.

"What is Global Warming."National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015

Karnaukhov A. V. "Role of the Biosphere in the formation of the Earth's Climate: The Greenhouse Catastrophe" Institute of Cell Physics. Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushino, Moscow Region.

This position does not appeal to me and I find it irritating because Trump does not support his claim with any facts, stats, or reasoning in his opinion. It is a non-supported claim which I find irritating.

"Earth science communication team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labratory". Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. California Institute of Technology. Nov 4, 2015.

"How green is a Tesla, really?" slate. n.d Web. 9 May. 2015.

"How 'Green' is Lithium" kitco. n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.

"Tesla Motor's Dirty Little Secret Is a Major Problem" fool. n.d. Web

The aforementioned articles regarding Lithium mines and their impact on the environment create an interesting discussion regarding our efforts to create a "greener" environment that we live in today.  The articles stress the impact that Lithium Ion Batteries have on the the planet and how much CO2 they truly emit.