test 2

200 - 237 Translate
254 - 296 MC
305 - 356 Translate

Arts can be tasty, too

The Walt Whitman ad seeks to inform a parental audience about the lack of art education in children’s lives today. The ad uses wit and humor to convey its claim that children must “up their daily does of art.” In addition, its witty visuals and catchy captions make appeals to pathos. Without exposing children to art, they do not become smarter in subjects like math and science.

The ad appeals to parents and seeks to inform them of the need for a greater amount of the arts in children’s lives. The ad first makes appeals to logos by detaching Walt Whitman’s name from the candy company that features “Whitman’s Sampler.” It details the poetry that he created, displaying him as an intellectual person. Why shouldn’t we be intelligent too? The ad later claims “Whitman can influence your child, too” to show that increasing the arts in a child’s life will increase a child’s intelligence. The ad also makes appeals to pathos through its wise wit and catchy captions.

The language used in the ad pervades the senses visually and verbally. The first feature in the ad is the half-bitten candy with a caption reading, “Too much of Whitman’s art won’t give you a stomachache.” Everyone has experienced a stomachache from eating too much chocolate, yet this feature conveys the fact that too much of the arts can’t give you a stomachache. Rather, you’ll be coming back for more. The second feature is the picture of the brain, with large sections as “readin’, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic” and a miniature section as “art.” The brain is supposed to depict a circle graph, showing regions with the highest percentage or rate. Here, art is the least of the three and the caption reads, “Give your kids a chance to succeed. Up their daily dose of art.” The aforementioned phases also include convincing wit such as “Up their daily dose of art,” which would usually be used for food products (or in this case, chocolate). Who doesn’t smile when they hear or read “readin’, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic?” The use of these humorous phrases guides the reader to a conclusion that children should be more exposed to the arts.

The ad informs parents effectively about the lack of the arts in children’s lives. The ad makes strong appeals to logos by disassociating Walt Whitman (an intelligent poet) with Whitman’s Sample (a popular candy). Through its use of witty phrases, catchy captions, and effectual pictures/graphs, the ad makes great appeals to pathos. All in all, the ad warrants its claim and effectively persuades and informs a parental audience that children need to be more exposed to the arts in order to increase their intelligence and become more well-rounded adults.

Analysis of the Satirical "Burning Sensation"

The Daily Show's "Burning Sensation"

Claim: The government and current administration lacks to have developed a response to the issue of Global Warming, often times saying that it may not even be an issue.

Evidence: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - "The expectation would be that if we keep emitting Greenhouse Gases at current rates we will see bigger changes in this current century than we did in the last century."

Warrants: The evidence the video provides is a credible video source.
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Humor: Using the groundhog from "Groundhog" day to show us how animals - creatures that are very aware of their surroundings (not to mention that the groundhog does foretell the fate of winter) - are responding.

Personification: Creating the groundhog to have a person's voice and name.

Juxtaposition: First, Jon Stewart shows that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (an international scientific group) trying to address and fix problems about global warming. Then, he shows American scientists in a food kitchen, hinting at the problem that Americans are more concerned about what they eat (and if it tastes good!) than the future of our planet.

Graph Source

Claim:

Based on evidence from the past 1000 years, carbon emissions, CO2 concetrations, and temperature change are interrelated. Now, these levels are exorbidantly high.

Media/Video Source

The Big Melt: The Arctic Ice Cap

First Print Source Analysis

This picture was taken on March 25th, 2008 (YESTERDAY!). A ice shelf (The Wilkins Shelf) the size of seven Manhattans broke off from the main Antarctic land ice because of global warming.

BBC article "Global Warming - An Overview"

Claim:

Global warming, which can no longer be disputed as nonexistent, has clear scientific causes and an abuse of these causes has effected humans because of the pecific, detrimental changes in the earth's atmosphere

Evidence:

1. "Globally 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded and eight of the ten warmest years fell in the last decade. Global ice sheets have decreased, so has global snow cover."
2. "...this is the most rapid rise in temperature since the end of the last ice age. So evidence is mounting that we, mankind are affecting the global climate, and the current warming has exceeded the natural fluctuations."
3. "Since the industrial revolution amounts have increased by 30%."

Why the claims are warranted:

All three claims cite scientific, hard evidence in order to achieve being warranted. The first provides quantitative evidence to show us, almost visually, that we have had such a great effect on climate change. The second one shows us that we are heading into a horrible period in human history if we are not careful, using qualitative evidence. The third one provides quantitative evidence about the ways in which we have increased our "spending" and the correlation that can be made with the global warming increases.

Second Print Source Analysis

New York Times article "Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts"

Claim:

Scientists can hardly fathom the amount of deterioration in the Arctic Circle this year. The ice has melted so much more than other annual averages, that scientists are beginning to wonder how much longer until more drastic changes occur. Can this phenomenon be ascribed to anything besides overactive, overindulging humans? Unfortunately, scientists would give the disappointing "no" to that answer. A bigger concern, though, is next year's summer and its melting period, because this year the ice deficit is so low.

Evidence:

1. "The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia."
2. "Astonished by the summer’s changes, scientists are studying the forces that exposed one million square miles of open water — six Californias — beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979."
3. "...this winter’s freeze is starting from such a huge ice deficit."

Why the claims are warranted:

The first two claims cite scientific evidence that is warranted by the facts that are provided (i.e. "six californias," "beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979"). The third fact also contains scientific evidence, but shows to us that it would make sense why this becomes a snowball (pardon the pun) effect. Besides that, we believe these three because they are scientific facts and because this print source (NYTimes) is credible.

Why the claims are warranted: