Multiple Choice Questions

It is important to better your argumentation skills at a time to write an essay or analyze another person's essay because...

a)  Argumentation skills can help you to distinguish between what is true and what is false, valid/invalid, in the claims of politicians, teachers, parents, etc.

b) Argumentation skills help you be more credible to the readers even if your claim is completely false.

c) Argumentation skills help you create a great argument.

d) Argumentation skills are not important.

Advertising depends heavily on visual argument but if lacks :

a) Support

b)Claims of value

c) facts

The attempt to prove that some action is right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, desirable or undesirable.

a) Claim of fact

b) Claim of policy

c)Claim of belief

d) Claim of value

Which of the following does not describe fallacies"

a)Fallacious arguments are very, very common and can be quite persuasive.

b) Fallacious arguments are completely based of true facts 

c)It can be very hard sometimes to evaluate whether an argument is fallacious.

d)Fallacies often overlap in an argument making them difficult to identify.

 

Body Image

There are many things that have changed throughout the pass of years in our world. One of them is body image. With TV shows based on beauty, beauty pageants and companies trying to sell their products to make you beautiful. In today's world, everything is based on appearance. Throughout this chapter, it's explained that body image is an obsession. Many people, above all women, will put themselves through the pain and suffering of plastic surgery to look more socially accepted. Whether it is done by not eating, throwing up, or plastic surgery...many people put their lives in danger by doing these extreme actions to become more beautiful because of how society has become. Only looks matter now a days.
       In the same chapter it is stated how this obsession is not only shown by models or public figures, the toys that the children are playing today are a vivid subliminal message towards becoming more beautiful. On page 538, the author explains that popular toys such as barbies have amazing figures. Barbies have beautiful faces and they're skinny. It has been proven that the measures of Barbie converted to a real women are almost impossible to achieve. This is a blatant intention from these companies to start affecting those children mind from a very young age. Barbie is the first role model little girls look up to, parents usually don't realize that by these, little girls may become self conscious  of their body and life overall, since Barbie is known to have "the perfect life".
     The anorexic runway models, the beauty TV shows, the beauty products commercials, toys and games and many other elements in today's society media are they main reason way appearance has become such a great deal to everybody. The fact that weighting less than 100 pounds is "beautiful" and anything above that range is unacceptable, changes the way of thinking of little girls and teenagers, therefore they look for extreme measures to be accepted and what it is thought to be beautiful.

Heal The World

Global climate change has been a controversial issue in the last decades. It has been a major problem created by society for many years now, but even though the damage to our Earth has been so tragic with the right resources and equipment it is possible to make this world a better place. 

Fort Myer,fl has a clean environment with not many factories that could cause major pollution to it. There are not so many cars either, comparing it to major cities such as New York or Washington DC. I live on campus at FGCU a university that has done a great amount of effort trying to better the environment and convert this university 100% green. FGCU has been restoring wetlands, creating new wetlands and more than a hundred acres of upland preserve. Everybody is constantly encourage to recycle, most importantly the people that live on campus. Recycling has never been this easy. 

If we keep this path and amazing example that FGCU gives, we are gonna be able to HEAL THE WORLD and create a better environment for our children.

White houses- Vanessa Carlton

The song White Houses by Vanessa Carlton might seem at first just another girly song, an up-beat composition about teenagers enjoying their summertime respite from education. It is undeniably catchy.  but if listened carefully enough (thinking outside the box!!), Vanessa's White Houses is full of symbolism and hidden meanings. The symbol of “white houses,” through its repetition and use as the title, stresses the importance of the loss of virginity as a formative act in the transition to adulthood. While the whiteness of the houses obvious symbolizes purity and virginity. “It’s alright and it’s nice not to feel so alone but I hold onto your secrets in white houses,” Vanessa is employing the idea of the narrator’s pure heart; in the next verse, in which the phrase in preceded by the line “but I put myself in his hands,” “white houses” indicates her untouched body; immediately afterwards, with: “love, or something ignites in my veins And I pray it never fades in white houses,” she is speaking again about her heart and how she doesnt know if it's love or lust what she feels.

She sings about a guy with a red shirt, symbolizing passion/love and "I sneak into his car, black leather seats", again using color, black to symbolize uncertainty, fear, abandonment, and evil. Additionally, the poem suggests to girls that losing one’s virginity will most likely be unpleasant "rush of blood, and a little bit of pain, on a cloudy day". Repetition is used in this song, once again when she states "My first time..." and then " He's my first mistake". Even the upbeat song symbolizes the teenager period of life, full of color and fun. A song full of meaning that a recommend everyone to listen very carefully.

Logical fallacies - Smoking will make you sexy.

 Eve Cigarettes – “The first truly feminine cigarette – almost as pretty as you are.” Eve Cigarettes came with a band of flowers printed on the stick, because what self-respecting woman would be seen out and about without a cigarette that matched her outfit? Even though in today's society cigarettes are legal but clearly damaging to our health. Cigarette advertisement had used mistaken ideas to aim for more smokers. In these examples, the advertisement main idea is that cigarettes aren't bad for you; in fact they make you happier, sexier, more popular and quite possibly richer. The reasons for smoking are mostly psychological. People are seduced to try tobacco by the glamorization of smoking in the movies and in advertisements. Addiction to nicotine makes it hard to quit smoking once you have started, but this addiction can be overcome in two weeks once the psychological reasons for smoking are eliminated. These media advertisements are completely wrong, cigarettes will do everything but make you better, actually, they will cause lung cancer, mouth cancer, and many other diseases, which are the opposite from being beautiful and wealthy.

A Modest Proposal; Babies.. eat them!

Jonathan Swift’s passage  “A Modest Proposal” is known all around the world to be one of the most splendid pieces of irony in the English language. Swift’s text proposes a brilliant plan to better Ireland, and in particular, its economy. This plan being eating babies, an idea that in anyone’s mind would sound unthinkable. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift satirizes the English landlords with outrageous humor, recommending that Irish babies should be sold as food at age one, when they are plump and healthy, to give the Irish a new source of income and a new food product to bolster their economy and eliminate a social problem. “And it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the cloathing of many thousands” (359). In this piece of text from Swift’s passage, he explains how babies should be used as food to many people that are unfortunate, instead of feeding the babies for their whole life. By this the author states the main irony of this piece. As swift explains there is many that don’t have enough to eat and new borns need to be fed constantly, therefore babies should be used to feed Ireland’s population.

It is blatant that, eating children would be cannibalism, and hopefully, not many people; no matter what their situation is, would want to sell or consume their own baby.

The passage is a red flag to Ireland, his main intentions was to draw attention to Ireland situation and poverty. Also, draw attention of people living in his country to combat and make themselves be respected by England.  Even when these are far from real solutions to the problem, his drastic measure symbolizes how drastic the issue really is. 

Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal." Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. 354-361. Print. 

The Flynn Effect.

In the book Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson, a Philosopher named, James Flynn hypothesized that the society IQ test scores and averaged are biased by culture and directly affected by media- television shows, video games, etc. Which has caused the average IQ scored of African and Caucasian to increase throughout the years. This changed majorly cause by the culture and environment change. The Flynn Effect is molded by the sleeper curve and a person’s environment, in other words, the place where he/she was raised. I agree that, “The Sleeper Curve shows that popular culture is growing more complex, yet it is not sufficiently complex to challenge the most gifted minds”(Johnson 152) . In today’s society the media has a great deal to do with how the new generations evolve morally as well as the cognitive development. Many TV shows, such as CSI and Prison Break challenge the viewer’s mind, making them analyze some situations in order to figure out an underlying conflict. A person’s cognition is definitely affected by these kind of shows and video games that challenge one’s mind and at the same time these make us smarter, as shown in our IQ scores.

  Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. Print.

Pretty Little Liars- The New Normal.

Pretty Little Liars it’s a TV series that airs weekly on ABC Family. This show has been a hit since it first started. This is a very suspenseful teenage drama. It is directed to teenagers since it includes problems and issues that young people go through. The series follows the lives of four girls whose clique falls apart after the disappearance of their “Leader” Alison. One year later, they begin receiving messages from a mysterious figure using the name "A" that threatens to expose their secrets, including long-hidden ones they thought only Alison knew. The last episode aired is "The New Normal" In this episode it seems that all relationships start to calm down and new relationships start to bloom. It's an episode full of details, but as always in this TV series, nothing is very clear and details seem to lead you nowhere. Gay issues with parents and friend betrayal are the main problems portrayed in this episode.

            Through the chapter Television, Steven Johnson explains how this type of show uses mysteries into the present-tense event. The characters perform actions and discuss events about which crucial information has been deliberately withheld. Since the start of Pretty Little Liars major information has been withheld from the audience to create mystery and above all, increase the show’s popularity. Pretty Little Liars is full of hints and unfinished stories, with each chapter the story unwinds and, ironically, it becomes more and more complicated. Johnson points out on page 77 of Everything Bad Is Good For You, "Part of the pleasure in these modern television narratives comes from the cognitive labor you’re forced to do filling in the details. If the writers suddenly dropped a hoard of flashing arrows onto the set, the show would seem plodding and simplistic. The extra information would take the fun out of watching” (77).

            The main argument on this episode is how one of the girls comes out as gay and now she feels people are discriminating her, and also favoring her for her “condition”. This is when pathos comes up to place by aiming to the audience’s emotion, touching such a controversial issue such as a girl being gay. They’re many claims of value that can be found in this episode. The already stated gay issue and teenager problems such as friend betrayal and cheating. Directly aimed to teenager that would feel associated with these issues.

            After reading this chapter by Johnson, I understand how writers play with the story making it way more complex than what it needs to be to catch the audience attention and keep it. Also, how writers include issues pertaining to certain audiences. Pretty Little Liars is a serie full of suspense that keep the audience at the edge of the chair, waiting for the next piece to complete the puzzle.

Myspace and predators!

"There's no way to stop a determined predator. There's no way to stop a determined victim" (119). By stating this, Kevin Alexander starts his essay about cyber-predators "MySpace Not Responsible for Predators". In this essay the author narrates the story about a young girl who was abused sexually by a 19 year old who pretended to be of less age, contacting his victim via MySpace and convincing the 14 year old to meet personally. The victim's family proceeded to file a law suit against MySpace stating that "MySpace is more concerned with making money than protecting children online" (119). According to the mother, the website wasn't efficient enough to provide a safe environment for her daughter, leaving sex offenders and predators with an unlimited range of options to attack naive kids. Alexander explains that even though this is a serious tragedy, it is not under MySpace responsibility that these situations are currently occurring. It is important to remind the reader that in today's internet web there are hundreds of social networks such as Facebook and Hi5, not just MySpace. The author remarks in the last paragraphs that this episode instead of being the social network's fault, in this case MySpace, it is the parents lack of responsibility. It was the mother's responsibility to explain to her kids the dangers of social networking with strangers. Also, a 14 year old girl is able to realize the risks of having conversations with strangers, and above all she ignored the danger of meeting someone she didn't know.
MySpace has forseen these kind of situations, and the company is doing everything on their hands to prevent them. By this, every user has to agree to some terms and conditions which include that "Myspace.com is not resposible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user of the Myspace.com services" (120).
I agree with Alexander's point that there's is no way to stop a sex predator from contacting victims, but there are definitely ways to avoid being the victim.




Alexander, Kevin. "Myspace: Not Responsible for Predators." New York: Morrow, 1985. Rpt. in Elements of Arguments: A Test and Reader. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2009. 119-120. 

Here's the rest of your fur coat!

 Analysis: This controversial PETA advertisement is directly aimed to people that wear fur. PETA has been fighting for years against animal abuse and cruelty. This image a woman is holding a skinned animal and the sentence " Here's the rest of your fur coat" to one side. There's is no background on the picture, making the main idea of the image be the center of all attention. This image represents the suffering of animals, the ones that are skinned alive and killed slowly. This gruesome image will have an effect on people wearing fur, who could think of fur as just another type of fabric, rather than the skin of a dead animal, an animal who suffered and died to dress and make someone look "fancy".




The Claim: "Here's the rest of your coat fur". A message clearly directed to all people wearing animal fur as clothes. Making the audience realize that a fur coat is actually the skin of a dead animal, instead of just another fabric. This image is encouraging people to stop wearing fur, and mainly to stop animal cruelty and abuse.

The Support: The logo of the company at the bottom of the image creates the main support for the cause. PETA is known for fighting against animal abuse and by putting the logo there, the audience immediately connects  this organization with what the image is about. Also, the support of celebrities and public figures make the message so much more attractive to people. PETA has been supported by many celebrities throughout the years, making this organization bigger and powerful.

The Warrant: The warrant of this image is the skinned, dead animal being "delivered" to someone that's wearing fur. Even though this image is very direct, it is not only fighting against the wearing of animal fur, but also animal abuse in general since the animal in the picture was abused in order to get the fur from it.

More examples of PETA advertisement..

Fashion victim! leather is dead skin- think about it.













If you wouldn't wear your dog.... Please don't wear any fur.

A little bit about me :)

Well, first of all. My name is Maria Eugenia Briceno Papapietro AKA Mao ( since my name is so long and difficult to pronounce). I am half Venezuelan and half Italian, born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. My whole life used to revolve around dancing, since 3 years old I started dancing ballet, flamenco, jazz, tap dancing, and pretty much any type of dancing that my mom could sign me up for. I studied for 9 years in a catholic school and when I was 14 my parents decided to move out of the country and come to The United States. This experience was the most difficult situation i've been put it, coming to a whole new country, new culture and above all new people talking in a language that sounded like CHINESE to me!! Little by little I managed to learn the language and to socialize with this new culture. I decided t join the dance team in high school, and colorguard for marching band. This gave me the opportunity to meet amazing people and to have a great experience doing what I love the most, performing.
After hard work in high school I managed to receive an academic scholarship to  FGCU full ride for 4 years. I'm majoring in Biology, planning to go to medical school and specialize to be an obstetrician, and deliver babies...
I hope this semester will be a successful one!!!!!

<3, Mao.

Here's a little bit about my Marching Band perfoming Thriller by Michael Jackson.