Numbah Five

"Did the article about Taylor Swift influence your opinion of her personally and her music? Do you think the pictures and charts added to the article or subtracted from it?"

My view of Taylor Swift is that she is an innocent little girl who sings about her love life. When has she sung a song without the thought of a boy? I guess that's what's in now days. Anyways, the article did not change any of my opinions on her but merely made me laugh. It was hilarious looking at the pictures and charts to see that she sings about driving, mostly in a truck, and crying. After reading this article and viewing the pictures I really started to notice that her songs were actually about riding in trucks and crying! Also, I started to like point out stuff when she sings it in her songs. This article did not change my view of Taylor Swift as a person or as an artist, but has made me notice those things about her.

Numbah Four

"In your opinion, what do you think is the most effective (pathos, logos, or ethos) when writing a paper? In your "Into the Wild" and "American Literature" essays did you focus more on one rhetoric, or did you balance all three? If so why?"

I believe that the most important Rhetoric would have to be Pathos. Pathos is the emotional control over an audience, which you can make your audience believe what you want them to believe. When the reader reads your paper, you want them to be interested. By using pathos in such a way, the audience can cry, laugh, and enjoy your paper the way you want them to. I think when I read something, I want to be involved or like have a little laugh or something. Like the Taylor Swift piece we read for class, I was laughing along and I understood what the author was saying. Sometimes I'm reading an essay and I don't even understand what they are trying to say because of the lack of pathos.

In my papers however I noticed all I did was use Logos. I know I sound kind of like a hypocrite, but I read my papers and all I had was a bunch of information. Now that I see it though, revising it so that I can draw in my audience, or try to draw in a audience, would be a good idea. I guess I just thought that I needed to support my idea more than speak to my audience.

Numbah Three

My opinion on McCandless hasn't changed much. I believed his story was an inspiring story, and still do. His bravery has inspired me to try things I always thought sounded crazy or even stupid. Reading the book though, has given me more reason. Even though he kind of died like super young, he still did something he probably wouldn't have done when he was 16 or whatever. I guess it goes to show that trying new things is good for life, just not living in the Alaskan wilderness on not much supplies. :p