Body Image Continued

How men really feel about their bodies. One of the first things the author of this article says is completely true and it can be seen all around. "The idea of men's bodies as sexual objects has intensified" (Spiker). Our bodies used to be just like tools, things to get work and other labor done. Men didn't care what they looked like. They were hairy, fat, short, or tall, and no one criticized them because the look wasn't the focus. It was the function. Now competition, women and other stresses have placed the focus of mens' bodies on how good they look. Tall, muscular and not a hair to be seen, except of course on their heads.
Another thing found in the article that I agree with completely, is when a guy doesn't like something about his body he won't admit it or talk about it, he'll simply joke about it instead. I know I'm short and I don't like to admit that it bothers me when people mention it or pick on me. So I joke about it myself and laugh along with them instead. I try to not let comments like that get to me. Women think they're all alone in their insecurities about their bodies, when in reality they're not.

Body Image

These were some of the most interesting reads in the book in my opinion. Reading about body image, especially in teens, is even more so interesting because I can relate. I'm not the most muscular fellow in town or the tallest. But I'm perfectly fine with my body. I mean sure from time to time I'd like to be taller, but overall I'm happy with my body. I think going through the pain Jim Conran went through to be 3 inches taller is absolutely ridiculous. Being a short guy, I would never think of doing such a thing.
Also, being surrounded in a bunch of teen girls and all my ex's, I can agree from exprience that most girls have a problem with their body and have something to complain about. And the funny thing is, is that most of these girls have nothing to complain about and are for the most part, pretty good looking. It gets annoying really fast when a really good looking girl has no confidence and complains about something about her body.

Oral Presentation

Oral presentation is my favorite. I know many people get stage fright, or just don't like talking in front of people, but I really don't have a problem with it. I've always enjoyed talking to small or large groups of people, being outgoing and meeting new people. I think one of the reasons I've always liked speaking out aloud is because of the classes I've taken. At Edison Community College I took a speech class to better improve my speech giving techniques and strengthen what I already knew. In the class we had to present impromptu speeches in which the professor would hand everyone an index card with a random topic and we would have to get up in front of the class and talk for 5 minutes about it. This technique helped a lot I think. We also had to present 3 main speeches, one informative and two persuasive. The persuasive speeches are kind of like what we are trying to do now in this class with paper 3. We had to choose a topic we knew a lot about or liked to talk about and try and persuade the listeners why our topic what the right or better one. I think the skills I learned will not only be advantageous to me in this class, but also in future classes or life scenarios.

Make Sure You Revise!

The section we had to read for tonight was about finishing up an argumentative paper, concluding and revising it. When you conclude your argumentative paper, you need to make sure that all the sources, opinions and examples you used strengthened and backed up your thesis statement. You need to make sure that everything you included positively helps the argument your trying to make.
As for revising, you need to make sure there are no grammatical errors and read your paper aloud to yourself to make sure that there are no flaws or holes in your logic and sentences. As in a song, you should hear when there is an error in your work. Another thing to check for when your revising would be things like run-on sentences or any other type of "fluff." The sentences, ideas or phrases just take up space and do no good in helping out in the strengthening of your argument. These tips should definately help us greatly in writing our own argumentative papers.

Evaluating a Web Site

I think a web site is one of the easiest types of resources to evaluate. You can usually tell right off the bat if the web site is going to be accurate, objective, current and well covered. From the home page, you can often tell if the web site is going to hold water. If it is a good source, it is most likely going to have a link or picture towards the bottom of the page of the company or center that copywrited or is in charge of the site. And from there you can usually find out if the site has proper authority behind it and is a good source to use. If you don't see any of these things on the page, chances are the site isn't going to be a good source to use for a paper or whatever you may be researching for.
Also, if the web site is a good one, there are going to be many links and other things to click on so you can explore the site, or a sister one, that is going to lead you to all the information your going to need for your research.
I think evaluating a web site is much easier than evaluating any other type of source, because usually the criteria you are looking for in a valid source are right there in front of you.

President's Address to the Nation, September 11, 2006

After reading this address, I just now realized how much appeal to emotion was put into this. Almost every paragraph in Bush's speech appeals to American's emotions or pride. In the beginning of the speech, he pretty much recalls exactly what happens, highlighting mainly on the people that were involved and how brave they were in rising to the occasion. A little later on he comments on how brave the men and women of our nations defense are by putting their drive to keep America safe above all others. And then in the end he comments about how he met a mother who lost her husband and two sons because of 9/11, and even though she missed them, and hoped for her sons' safety, she was still proud.
Everything Bush says is used to appeal to the audience, the entire nation. He did a great job reflecting on the entire spectrum of emotions that people felt during the horrible event.
I like how through all the appeal to emotions, Bush also accurately states what he has done and plans on doing in retaliation to 9/11. I never realized how often these elements we learn about in class are thrown into speeches and papers all over.

A Modest Proposal

I remember reading Swift's A Modest Proposal in high school. I had a lot of fun reading this selection because we had to write our own "modest proposal." It was a group activity in which we had to write a satire similar to Swift's essay. I wrote mine on something really ridiculous, though I can't quite recall what it was about. But one of my friends that is still in high school had to write one recently and I helped her with it a bit. She chose to write about how she was a mad scientist that came up with a drug that reduced the levels of testosterone in males and how this would better the world, fixing the problems of war and relationships between people. I thought it was funny and all, but didn't really agree with or appreciate the topic. But I didn't tell her that. Another friend of mine decided to write his on some crazy idea about how to rid the world of all the ugly people. I'm just using these examples to better reinforce something close to what Swift was trying to do. That is the point of a satire after all. A satire is supposed to be something the author doesn't approve of and is most times funny, with strong use of irony, sarcasm and parody. Satire is my favorite type of writing, and that's why I enjoyed this reading so much.