I was having a hard time coming up with a topic, but then i thought back to an experience i recently had when i went to Florida. We went to Universal Studios and it seemed that almost everyone there was from another country, and they spoke another language. I hadn’t really noticed how many other languages were being spoken until my friend brought it up. She told me, “it’s so rude that people speak other languages right in front of me, it’s like they’re talking about me. They should just learn English already.” Obviously, i thought that was rediculous that she’d say something like that because they may very well have just been visiting the U.S. I thought her attitude about it was far-fetched, until the rest of the people i was with agreed with her. That’s when i realized that this is an important issue, especially in Florida where diversity is ever-present.
I would like to research bilingual education in the U.S., especially now that more and more immagrants are living here.
My main 3 questions would be:
Would it be beneficial, or even proper, to force immagrants to learn english?
What if immagrants didn’t want to learn English, would communications amongst U.S. citizens be lost?
If our own citizens couldn’t communicate, what would that mean in the long-run in terms of communications amongst other countries?
Why does the U.S. refuse to accept a second national language?
Rogerian rhetoric is a type of arguement paper that was inspired by Carl Rogers and his way of thinking. He was a “humanist” psychologist that believed that an topic of debate would better be approached from a neutral stand point. This is a good point because who would want to listen to an essay that immeadiately states something you don’t agree with. How will you ever get people to see the other side of the topic? Plus, It’s not just about getting the other side to listen, it’s about showing in the paper that there is common ground that both sides, regaurdless of their views, can agree on.
My own questions about it would be:
What is the best format for a specific topic? (which view/opinion goes first?)
Could there be some cases that follow different patterns - when?
How do i write the last paragraph, the solution, without giving too much of my own opinion??
I didn’t really understand the last paragraph of that sample essay. She didn’t really come up with a solution, just kind of stated that the behavior is something we grow out of.
Do many topics have a common ground that can be uncovered?
The person I find absolutely fascinating is Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997). He was a French author, but most famous for his oceanic adventures. Something not many people know is that Cousteau was awarded medals for being a spy for
France in WWII. After WWII is when he perfected what was called the “aqua-lung.” That later became to be known as Scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). I think he would be interesting to interview because he invented something that allows people to stay underwater for hours at a time. I want to know the things he’s seen!! Plus, as an added bonus, I’m about to use scuba gear myself for the first time. I’m going on vacation to
Florida on Easter Sunday and staying for a week. We’re going to go scuba diving, but in the company of quite a few alligators…so I’m debating whether this little stunt is worth it. I feel that I’m an adventurous person, and there is no way I’d miss out on an opportunity like this, and I’m thankful to him for his invention. Not only did he invent the necessary gear, but he also sparked the interest of many non-adventurous people. He did and 8 year long show on all the life below the surface waters called “The Underground World of Jacques Cousteau.”
My three main questions for him would be:
1) What are the most amazing things you’ve seen? Why did they leave an impact on you?
2) Where do you think underwater research would be without you and your inventions?
3) Were there any times where you regretted your career choice?
One issue facing Duluth was brought up at monday’s City Council meeting: the withdrawl of troops from Iraq. Obviously, this is an important, world-wide issue…so why should Duluth’s City Council be discussing topics of a national status? That’s why this is controversial. Councilor Russ Stewart proposed his plan to slowly remove the numbers of troops from Iraq, including those of Duluth’s 148th fighter wing. His plan passed at the meeting with a 6-2 vote. The 2 ‘no’ votes were from councilors opposed to second-guess the national government. Stewart expected a few to be opposed, but knew he needed to present the topic in hopes of smaller types of gov’t sticking together to be heard. He believes that all levels of gov’t should send messages of a national level.
A second issue discussed at the Duluth City Council meeting was whether or not Mayor Herb Bergson should be allowed to collect more of a profit from Duluth events, mostly, the Bayfront Blues Festival. Bergson originally proposed that Duluth should see at least 25% of the earnings of such events, but that means taking away income from the founder/president of the Blues Fest, Chris Mackey. Mackey’s income is shared with his vice president and is only around $75,000 a year. Bergson is considering only charging a set rental fee for the park instead of getting a percentage of each of the event tickets sold, but nothing has been decided. This is important because if the income’s of the founders are cut into the event will no longer be able to have as many entertainment groups, suffer from a limited alcohol supply/other merchandise, and ticket operation would go to TicketMaster’s control. Festival goers wouldn’t be thrilled with the changes and thus overall profits would decrease.
One of the most useful pieces of information I found was how news stories today are based in an order or most to least important. It was interesting to learn some of the ways in which news writing has evolved. The chapter contained many examples of earlier news reporting, and the difference in today’s writing was very evident. Our news stories got right to the point, making sure people can read the important information first, and then the endings of the stories seemed to sort of fade away with the ‘fluffy’ elements. I think that when writing our news articles the order of events is a very important detail to keep in mind.
Another tidbit I found useful was how the chapter told how a reporter should remain objective to the story. In other words that means not to take sides with one view over another. The point of news stories are simply to tell the story, and, in doing so, allow the reader to perceive their own view. The reader shouldn’t be subject to bias views of a reporter, unless it’s in an opinion article.
The chapter also highlighted ways in which to make your article more factual and concise by using “primary sources.” They suggested using other printed sources (newspapers, magazines, documents, etc) and to conduct interviews with people involved first-hand in the story. It’s very useful to use quotes from sources or interviews, but they suggest that we translate the text/verbal rhetoric into easy-to-read parts. The background information can be used for the body of the news story.
Going back to the history of news stories - - earlier stories seemed to have a definite ending, whereas ones nowadays seem to just fizzle out. Lately, more people have been using a sentence or small paragraph to tie in the whole story and result in people pondering the subject matter more. I think that’s a good suggestion because why would someone waste hard-work if not to instill questioning into the reader?
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