In Class: Open Free Write

So this morning I decided to go on a bike ride because my Tuesdays are pretty crammed class-wise.  I woke up at 8 a.m. and checked the temperature on my phone and it said it feels like 32 degrees Fahrenheit  outside.  I knew it would be cold but not that cold.  Now I have a pretty good arrangement of winter cycling clothes but what I do lack is a good pair of gloves to keep my fingers warm.  Rolling out of my driveway it was chilly but I thought I was going to be alright.  After my warm up I started to pick up the pace to around 20mph and that's when my fingers started to hurt they were so cold.  I biked a good amount in the winter in Austin last year but for some reason today felt ridiculously cold.  About an hour into it my hands went completely numb.  Hey at least they didnt hurt anymore.  I finished my ride with a nice hot cup of coffee at starbucks, YUMMM!!

Unit 3 Proposal

The issue that we have chosen for this project is publishing unnecessary and inappropriate details about one’s personal life through facebook. Overuse of facebook has many negative effects on incoming college freshman which include being a distraction to academics among other things. Regarding this topic, we think that incoming freshman to TCU should be advised to limit what they share publicly on their facebook. Additionally, they need to be made aware that information they believed to be private can be seen by anyone, including their future professors and employers.

Our target audience for this particular issue is incoming TCU freshman, with facebook accounts, that have just graduated from high school. Our audience will be made up of both males and females ranging in age from seventeen to eighteen. Focusing in on TCU freshman, most of the audience members will be from middle to upper class families.

Our first medium will be an article in the Skiff discussing the dangers of facebook to incoming freshman and advice from more experienced, older students. Second, we are going to create a flier which would be handed out during new student orientation. The flier will include a general example of what an inappropriate facebook page looks like for incoming freshman. For our final medium for this argument, we decided to have a short video that could be shown to incoming freshmen during orientation as a warning about overusing Facebook.

In Class: Visual Arguments

The reading last night was on visual arguments and how they can be used to make a claim.  The two scenarios I really found powerful were the Kennedy/Nixon debate and the use of statistics through graphs.  The Kennedy/Nixon debate was the first televised presidential debate and the way each person appeared on tv is believed to have a great impact on the number of people that voted for them.  Just by Nixon looking clammy and sickly gave him a bad image.  The importance of visual arguments to make a claim will be used in my project of facebook.  Through a facebook page I believe we will be able to create strong images.

What did I learn from the reading material last night?

I learned that by not checking the syllabus and not doing the assigned reading that I will not be prepared for class.  It is always important to keep up to date with your classes because each professor put a great amount of time and effort into each class and doing the same is very respectful.  The assigned readings almost always have something to do with the upcoming class, so by not doing the reading makes me just that much further behind.