CaBeZa De vAcA

Rosie Charles
AP Eng III
Cabeza de Vaca
8/30/09


This piece of literature is based on Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America by Cabeza de Vaca. These are direct accountants, feelings, and emotions of Cabeza de Vaca on the “unknown”, so to speak. This article contains many rhetoric items yet, I should only examine three of them. For one, this article shows exceptional purpose. Also, the article conveys pathos and ethos.


The purpose of this article is not only to inform, but to help others understand. Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America informs us on exactly what Cabeza de Vaca went through and why. For example, the way he tells the reader about everything little and indirect thing that happened to him. Even though it may seem insignificant, it is still information. This article also helps others to understand. To understand why Cabeza de Vaca was the person he is. He also wanted readers to understand the cultures of the many different Indians tribes that he ran into. I believe that he did this to show who the real “bad guys” were.


In this excerpt, pathos is very much used. The whole article conveys emotion, because it is reality to Cabeza de Vaca. As you know, imagery is related to pathos. In this piece, there is a specific area that uses amazing imagery. Before the quote, Cabeza de Vaca is speaking about the hard labor and what the sun did to their skin since they were not use to the heat and conditions. “The region is so broken and so overgrown that often, when we gathered wood, blood flowed from us in many places where the thorns and shrubs tore our flesh.” While reading this, I can picture exactly what he was describing. I am sure other readers can also.


Most importantly, this article contains ethos. Ethos is the presence of credibility. Who else would be more credible to tell Cabeza de Vaca’s story than him? Exactly! By the story being written by him, readers have no doubt that every bit and piece of written material is the truth. Also, since the writer is Cabeza de Vaca, it bring a hint of life to everything that is said, done, and spoken.


This is an amazing article written with great passion. Cabeza de Vaca inspires me and I hope many with this article. It expresses great purpose and understanding. It also shows emotion and imagery through diction. Most importantly it express understanding, and credibility.

The Iroquois Creation Story (is suppose to be double spaced)

Rosie Charles
AP ENG III
The Iroquois Creation Story
8/25/09



The Iroquois Creation Story is not only an interesting one, but to the people of that specific tribe, a true one also. This story uses many different rhetoric things and terms. For one, it most definitely uses logos. It also uses ethos, which is extremely important to any kind of document. Lastly and most outstandingly, this “myth” uses a heck of a lot of imagery.


The logos in this story have a lot to do with logic. To some readers, this myth, so to speak, may not have any kind of logic. But as stated before, this story is what the native people of that tribe believed and considered logical. To them The Iroquois Creation Story makes perfect sense and every bit of it is true. I, as a reader, have to put myself into the correct audience mode and not be too critical by comparing my beliefs to theirs.


This story has amazing credibility. Who better to read a Native American myth from than a Native American himself? David Cusick was the first Native American to record on his own the founding myths of his people (logos). Cusick actually lived in that time period. Also, which seems to me to be the most important, Cusick really believed in the myth that is told in this article. In most other articles or pieces, the author giving the information really has no real emotional, mental, or physical connections to the subject. By having someone who really relates to the subject, it makes reader more comfortable with the subject. Also it helps with paying attention also.


In this story imagery is what makes the myth distinct. While reading this story, the reader can actually visualize exactly what the author is portraying, and vividly too. For instance, when the author explains exactly how and why the “evil twin” decides to be birthed out off the underarm and not the womb. By the words that he uses (diction), and the way he places them, readers can picture exactly what is going on in the story.


As stated before, this story and/or “myth’, is not just interesting, but it serves a purpose. The purpose is to not only inform, as the author did. The purpose is to also relate and to give readers a better understanding of things that were, once, never understood.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Rosie Charles
AP Eng III
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
08/24/09


The question is: is Google making us stupid? The answer to this question is in the article that I was required to read. In this article there are many major points that the author relates to the question. What the author does to prove his point is to use some of the rhetoric techniques that I have learned in class. He uses logos, ethos, great diction, and relates and recognizes his audience.


Logos is the use of logic to prove or explain a point. In this article, logos are most definitely used. Most of everything that the author puts into this speech is true. For instance, “The internet is subsuming most our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.” If you analyze this quote and pick it apart, there isn’t much, if anything, that you can say is not true. All the things listed are things that we do use on the computer. Even though we also use these things away from the computer, there seems like there is a slim possibility that these things aren’t really a necessity anymore. Another way the author uses logos is by having all the different quotes from different esteemed peoples, such as professor, doctors, writers, and even the distinctly known Socrates. Socrates was said to “fear that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful””. By having a quote such as this, it not only establishes logos as being logical, but it also establishes ethos.


As I was taught, ethos is the placement of credibility. Credibility in a speech and/or article is, in my eyes, very crucial. Not only does it help lengthen the time the article holds the readers attention, but it also gives a sense of truth to the matter or topic. As stated in the paragraph above, having someone as notable as Socrates relating to what the author is trying to represent is most incredibility establishing ethos. When most people hear the name Socrates, they think Aristotle or Plato. When they hear these names, they automatically think wisdom. Wisdom is always a message an author would want to send to the reader/audience. It let’s them know that the author has a feel for what he or she is writing or speaking about. Another example of ethos in this article is the many doctors and writers the author has quotes or excerpts from. This also makes a sense of comfort to the audience.


“Maybe I’m just a worrywart.” This is a perfect example of the type of great diction in this article. By saying the preceding quote, the author allows the audience to think for themselves. There is no longer a sense of urgency to understand and agree to what the author is portraying. This is a good thing. I know, as a reader, I never like to read something and feel like the author is too aggressive or not understanding enough of the opposite side of his or her argument. As like other things in the article, this type of diction gives the reader a sense of independence, and who doesn’t love that? I also picked up that the author uses the pronoun “I” a lot. I think this betters the article in two different ways. In one way, it relates the author to the subject and the audience. By using “I”, it lets the audience know that the author has noticed and been thru, so to speak, what he is speaking upon. Secondly, it gives a hint of pathos by relating to the audience.


In my opinion and perspective, relation and recognition of audience is the key to a good and well written article. In this article, the author has an amazing sense of audience. One way in which I can tell that the author’s primary focus was the audience is the way the article was written. Even though the article was written in first person, the diction of the article made seems as though the author was speaking directly to you with all his information. Also, all the stated above reasons in one way or another relate to audience. Diction, pathos, ethos, and logos, are all elements that hold a readers attention and all for different reasons.


Is Google making us stupid? That question is left for you to decide. Based on all the information and logic here in the awesomely written article, I say yes and no. Yes because the internet itself is taking away from people doing things for themselves, by themselves. The internet isn’t really leaving a sense of independence or self help. No because even though we are becoming lazy and way too comfortable, the last thing Google is doing is making us stupid. Google supplies people with everyday information that can help solve problems, answer questions, and who knows whatever else. What I hope you don’t fail to realize is that Google is still a source of information, and how can informative information ever be a “bad” thing?

DiCTi0N ASSiGNMENT

Write a simile comparing a tree to a domestic animal. Use a noun as an adj.

An oak tree like a pawed Pomeranian.

Rosie Charles

AP Eng III

8/20/09