White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Peggy McIntosh writes about the advantages of having white skin, whether it is financial, personal, or physical. She begins to write about the benefits men have over women as far as status in society, work possibilities, and others. She is obviously a feminist writer and that was reflected in her first two paragraphs. Then Peggy writes about white privileges and how we carry an "invisible wieghtless knapsack." At this part I am kind of lose interest from the story because of the the one sided observation and I don't like her writing style. As the paper continues there is a long list of random observations that she finds beneficial to white people that continues consist of 50 different statements. This seem like overkill to me, however I read some of these and I can agree with some like "48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household." However many of these statements seemed outdated and irrelevant like "41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me."

I did not find this article very convincing unless you were a white women. The article stuck with the thesis and went off on a few tangents during the paper. The beginning seemed to close out some of the audience of the paper. This paper shows heavy emphasis on the ethos side of society and stays with that throughout the paper. There are a few portion where logos is presented offering examples of the paper, but I found this paper not convincing enough and the tone seemed very snobby.

Of Headless Mice... and Men

The article scared me, not just because of the topic but the way the author chose to write the paper. Cloning mice without "heads" is a crazy concept, but the end product mice is the regular mouse with no brain to operate the vessel. The beginning of the paper gives a general idea of what scientists are achieving with this new found since, for the late nineties. In Texas tadpoles are the animal of choice when it comes to their experiment of removing the cell that creates the brain before the tadpole is developed. The article continues to question if brainless cloning is ethical or are we playing god, but remains slightly unbiased for a majority of the paper. However, during the last two paragraph the paper hits a steep hill and falls into the negative side towards cloning. This shocked me, resulting in many questions floating around in my head.

All in all the article was convincing, because it allowed the reader to feel as though they are in a comfortable state only a few questions asked and then BAM you are hit with a brick wall of conviction. There was several approaches the author took, but hovered mostly over ethos side of things involving facts, logos, to cover the bases. The article was well put together and offered me another view on cloning.

Nuclear Waste

Richard Muller wrote about the many complications with the uses and disposal of nuclear products that man has created and wonder whether it is all worth the trouble. The article is ridden with numbers and statistics that give the reader a general idea for what we as a country would have to do in order to properly dispose of these hazards. Granted the timeline for nuclear waste disposal is very unrealistic and is stressed by the author. Many interesting facts were brought to my attention while reading this article. The fact that the U.S. Government has been drilling holes inside of a mountain and storing it a thousand feet under the surface, which is costing them lots of money. The fact that Yucca isn't a stable environment stresses the uncertainty of the government's decision.

The article seemed to be rather hard to get through for my fellow classmates considering it was like reading a text book style of writing, but the science aspect kept me interested. This article show lots of logos with all the numbers, years, and percentages; regardless of the author's need to emphasize the problems with nuclear waste. The diction of the story kept it at a enjoyable level, because it gave a voice to Richard Muller's article, whereas many science papers lack. There was a little pathos involved, and ethos was established by whether or not our society's decisions are the correct ones. The paper shows only one side of a story that I know nothing about which caused some problems for me when reading. Yet Muller kept on track with his ideals and thesis offering a well made persuasive essay. The only thing that this paper needed was more examples to that we would relate to such as on page 210, where Richard talks about how it was only ten thousand years humans discovered agriculture and how planning for such long lengths of time seem unreal.

Movie Ratings

Movie Ratings discussed the hatred from all directors and movie lovers towards the actions of the MPAA(Motion Picture Association of America). The article was a difficult read for all the unfamiliar words present, but the overall topic was one that I could understand easily. The article began with the description of the past methods of rating movies and the transition to the new rating system that we follow by, which was "X" to "NC-17" ratings. One of the major issues that the author had with the essay was the fact that the MPAA would show no mercy to those movies that have been already released. For example once director Stanley Kubrick had a recent death before his movies release of Eye's Wide Shut the MPAA decided to make a few altercations to the film.

Overall the article presented the thesis from the very beginning and restated it at the very end. There were definitely parts of the paper that were just the rants of the author, but had some meaning and kept it tied in with the main idea. Almost all of the movies and directors used in the article were unfamiliar to me except for the movie This Film Is Not Yet Rated. The article was an editorial to a movie magazine and was definitely meant for a seclusive audience. This paper would be more convincing if I could relate to more of the examples provided, but it showed a great amount of ethos and lacked pathos and logos.

Why We Crave Horror Movies

Stephen King's "Why We Crave Horror Movies" was an excellent essay and I really enjoyed reading it. King begins the paper by describing what the literal definition of "mentally ill" and he continues to tell how we all fit into that category one way or another. During the essay he mentions how we all tend to "crave" some way to be scared and fill the void of our emotions, this one would be fear. If we ignore these negative emotions altogether they will most likely get out some way, shape, or form. That is why even though society pushes for positive reinforcement, we seek those not so happy movies or videogames to fill the void and keep our sanity intact.

The diction set in the essay was laid back, informal, and meant to relate to the reader which made it easy to get comfortable and enjoy this article. At no point does Stephen King go off topic, maybe with the Leonard Nimoy comment, and keeps his thesis the main topic of this essay. The paper exemplified ethos and pathos points of the rhetorical triangle, but mostly on the ethos side. He explained how society functions and that we have emotions that we can't keep inside us. Stephen King's essay is a convincing persuasive essay and captures the reader from the very beginning.

Hidden Intellectualism

Gerald Graff's article was clearly written that could be related to because he provided his own personal experience to the paper. He compares the intellectual to the "anti-intellectual" and the only reason that the intellectual succeeds in schools so much there is little basis for people who are given assignments that don't fit their interests. Most of the article reflected on his past experiences, and don't offer much more information. When I first read the article, it seemed to catch my eye because it related to my life. I am very sport/physically oriented and analyzing and copying the movements of others is a tool I use to learn. Graff on the other hand, was very interested in sports stats, players, and all kinds of sports.

Graff continues to offer the idea of implementing this system in schools to promote a more active student body and allow them to study what interests them. Much logos and ethos were used in this article and not cold hard facts or information to sell the paper for others to be interested. The paper was well written with an informal tone that kept the reader attentive. The ending needs to be set up a little better offering more information to persuade others to be interested.

Three Days to See

Helen Keller's piece was well written with many details and examples that seem unlikely that she is blind. Her thesis was written in the beginning and kept rather simple. The article was basically what she had planned to do if she could see and hear for three days. While reading this article I had a habit of getting myself to reading and not really analyzing it. The article made me realize how much I rely on sight and don't know what would become of me if I was in her situation.

Throughout the paper she spoke in a comforting and relaxed tone that kept the audience in a calming mood and made the paper easier to read. Logos was very prevalent in the paper because of everything was based of her opinion and considered all important aspects. My favorite part was the fact that for her last night she decided to attend a comedy show, and I couldn't think of anything else to ease the pain of returning to a world of darkness.