D9, HW3, Writing Reflection

I did a lot of searching using the internet to complete this task. I searched for different sources to help me for my final research paper. These sources will help me back up my different points with evidence and also provide me with different views based around my research project. After doing the research with these sources I had to properly cite them using MLA format and combined everything into one MLA style annotated bibliography. If I were to complete this project again, I would have taken more time originally citing the sources to make sure everything was properly done with the citing. I had to spend a lot of time double checking my sources and making correction. Getting this done in the beginning would have made this step of the process much more painless. I am proud that I was able to find so many sources revolving around my topic. I never had to do a lot of research for any assignment before, so this helped me really dig deep on the internet for different sources. If I had more time I would have really liked to find more sources that support government control of the internet, and also spend more time with my annotations. I feel I definitely improved on understanding MLA, with the research I had to do on properly citing for MLA. I definitely need to put more time into the rough draft so I do not have as many edits later on for the final draft.

D9, HW4, Toulmin method outline

Project's Claim: The U.S. Government needs to do more to help stop identity theft over the Internet.

Reason #1: It is one of the leading Internet crimes.
Warrant/Principle: No one wants to be victims of identity theft.
Backing: No one would disagree with this.

Evidence #1: FBI statistics have these numbers reported.
Warrant/Principle: People trust numbers provided by the FBI
Backing: The FBI is pretty much as high as it goes, if you can't trust them with the numbers you can't trust anybody.

Evidence #2: It messes up a lot of people's financial situation.
Warrant/Principle: When a victim of identity theft, they usually freeze your bank account not allowing any access to it, which can be a big financial burden.

Backing: Testimonials can show this.
Objection: Testimonials can be forged.
Rebuttal: So can pretty much anything, but with most people knowing at least one person who has been a victim of identity theft they can relate.


Reason #2: It affects society as a whole, which can eventually be an issue with inflation.

Evidence #1: With people's bank accounts being frozen, they can not buy as much of other stuff and when enough people are victims it will start to hurt the economy.
Warrant/Principle: When a victim of identity theft, they usually freeze your bank account not allowing any access to it.


Evidence #2: If the government does not step in, it could be a way for terrorists to mess with our economy as well.
Backing: With this happening it also backs the point in Reason 2 Evidence 1 more.

D9, HW1, Reading Reflection

In Chapter 7, of Everything’s an Argument it has a really good section on how to organize your arguments. This is on page 199 and has a 9 point list on different things to be aware of when organizing, such as if your transitions are strong enough. In Chapter 17 on page 505 it talks about the “Flashpoints of Logical Arguments,” which is interesting because it explains how every argument that has a flaw there can be a flashpoint within the argument. In Chapter 11 of The Bedford Researcher it talks about help with organizing and outlining a research project. On page 151 it goes over what type of outline you should create and even on how to create an informal outline.

D8, HW4, The Case against Coldplay

Jon Pareles, the author of the essay "The Case against Coldplay" gave a very critiquing review about the band Coldplay. Although he does mention some of Coldplay's good qualities and recognizes them as a band, he has no respect for them. At one point, he says the singer, Mr. Martin sounds 'somewhere between a yodel and a hiccup.' His audience could be the band itself, cover bands of Coldplay, fans of Coldplay, people who hate Coldplay, or anyone even thinking of listening to Coldplay. He wants it to be known that Coldplay is a terrible band. It is obvious that Pareles had negative thoughts about the band before writing the review. Sometimes it is not fair to the band getting reviewed by someone who already dislikes you. I would think it would be more fair to have someone more neutral to the band to not get such a bias view towards their music. On the contrary, Pareles is a well-respected journalist, graduating from Yale University and working for Rolling Stone Magazine, and now the New York Times, so he definitely has a background to give him the right to critique as much as he has done.

D8, HW6, Deadline Reflection

http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com - Alex - D8HW2 and 5 Peer Review/Grammar Assignment

http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com - Alex - D8HW4 Case Against Coldplay

http://camlunamcc.blogspot.com - Cam D8HW2 Peer Review and D8HW4 The Case against Coldplay

http://laceyariz.blogspot.com - Kathy - D8HW6, Deadline Reflection

The suggestions made for my annotated bibliography will definitely help me when I go to do the final version. From these suggestions I learned I need to tweak my MLA formatting a bit more, and also add a source or two for my opposing side.

D8, HW3, Peer Review Reflection

Kathleen peer reviewed my annotated bibliography. I agree with her edits and suggestions. One suggestion she made was to make sure I get a source pertaining to government control with the internet. I peer reviewed Tara and Coralee. What I learned from peer reviewing these two are to make sure I put the time and effort into the projects that they deserve. Sometimes it is easy for others to spot work that seems like it was just thrown together, and then it is also easy to see the ones who really spent time to complete their projects almost flawlessly.

D8, HW1, Reading Reflection

In Everything’s an Argument, in chapter 5 on page 105 it talks about how to really break down your paper and to focus on a few rhetorical questions. It also wants you to make sure you can “show how the key devices in argument actually make it succeed or fail.” In chapter 6 on page 147, the book goes into explaining the Toulmin Argument, which was started by Stephen Toulmin in The Uses of Argument (1958). Toulmin was a British philosopher who “described the way people make convincing and reasonable arguments.” Toulmin has become a very popular method and logic for help with arguments in the real world.