English

Title: What is language? Goal: Using own ideas, answer the question what is language in relation to your own experiences and language competencies. Key points I highlighted for the text:  1) What it means to know a language? 2) What’s its main purpose (communication) 3) Different aspects of language such as sign language, spoken language, etc 4) Sound systems. How every language has its own set of sounds that are unique to the language. 5) Variations of languages. How received pronunciations, which is the “correct” way to speak english now has many variations such as American vs British english. And even within those countries there are more variations.  6) How language is ever evolving

The essay should be about face mask/health especially during the time of this pandemic. Evaluations are everywhere, and people use them all the time. Have you ever read a product review on Amazon before ordering something? Have you ever read movie reviews and decided to go see a movie (or not see one) because of them? Have you ever taken a book recommendation from a friend? These are all forms of evaluation essays. Evaluations are communicated in many formats, but the king of all evaluations is the evaluation essay. What makes the Evaluation Essay different from a friend’s book recommendation is that it tries to be well-thought-out, logical, and useful to as many people as possible. A recommendation from a friend relies on the already-established relationship. A movie review from an experienced critic, however, is impersonal, and therefore it has to earn its right to exist in the eyes of the reader. It does this by establishing a clear set of criteria. More on criteria in a moment. There are a few successful movie critics. Movie buffs might even be able to name a few. These have built reputations and people have come to trust their judgement. An experienced critic is not your friend, is going to approach telling you about the new Superhero Movie #3413 in a much different way. You and your friend are likely of similar ages. You likely have very similar interests. You may have discussed movies with your friend before at length. You may have gone and seen many movies together and talked about parts you liked and disliked. When your friend says, “trust me, bro, you’re gonna love Superhero Movie #3413,” very little else needs to be said. You and your friend have a certain ethos, and this impacts the content of their review and how much you trust it. He or she knows what you like and don’t like in movies, and you trust his or her judgement. 2 Random essay writer does not know you, and you do not know him. This is why the evaluation essay writer must come up with criteria, or several qualities that can be used to judge the value of a product. Being thorough, clear, and unbiased is how the writer builds ethos, gets the audience to trust them, without a personal connection. For movies, criteria might be as follows: 1) Acting, 2) Special Effects, 3) Plot, and/or 4) Sets and Costumes. There might be many more. The essay then will analyze, explain, and provide examples of each of the criteria (without spoiling too much of the film in the process). The important thing about criteria is that it could feasibly be used to judge other products in the same category. Thecategory doesn’t have to be every movie ever if you’re doing movies, however. A great way to show off your expertise on something like, say, Marvel movies, would be to evaluate a film as a Marvel movie instead of as a movie in general. The criteria and comparisons there would be entirely different, and would make for a much focused (and possibly better) essay.

Essay 3 Directions DIRECTIONS: In American culture, we are bombarded with plenty of messages and images encouraging us to buy, buy, buy! As consumers, we are persuaded to buy certain items through certain advertising techniques. Your first paragraph should preview your analysis by summarizing ethos, pathos, and logos for the reader. Then, using Janny Scott’s “How They Get You to Do That?” (1) choose two of these marketing tactics. (2) For each tactic, analyze how a specific advertisement from television, a magazine, newspaper, or another form of media demonstrates that marketing tactic and (3) how that advertisement uses ethos, pathos, or logos to appeal to the target audience. REQUIREMENTS  Write 4 full pages minimum. Integrate two sources: Source 1 should be Scott. Source 2 should come from any other reading indicated in the “Approved Sources” in the next slide. Use third person point of view only. Include a Works Cited page that contains your two sources. Refer to the MLA Citations PPT for help. Follow the structure provided in this PPT. Approved Sources for Essay 3 “When Algorithms Don’t Account for Civil Rights” (White) “Does Advertising Ruin Everything?” (Thompson) “Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us” (Steele) “The Danger of a Single Story” (Adichie) “Positionality” (Meriam and Bierema) “The Miseducation of the American Boy” (Orenstein) “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” (Hanes) Article: “How They Get You to Do That” How They Get You to Do That                                                                          Janny Scott So you think you’re sailing along in life, making decisions based on your own preferences? Not likely! Janny Scott brings together the findings of several researchers to show how advertisers, charitable organizations, politicians, employers, and even your friends get you to say “yes” when you should have said “no”—or, at least, “Let me think about that.” The woman in the supermarket in a white coat tenders a free sample of “lite” cheese. A car salesman suggests that prices won’t stay low for long. Even a penny will help, pleads the door-to-door solicitor. Sale ends Sunday! Will work for food. The average American exists amid a perpetual torrent of propaganda. Every­one, it sometimes seems, is trying to make up someone else’s mind. If it isn’t an athletic shoe company, it’s a politician, a panhandler, a pitchman, a boss, a billboard company, a spouse. The weapons of influence they are wielding are more sophisticated than ever, researchers say. And they are aimed at a vulnerable target—people with less and less time to consider increasingly complex issues. As a result, some experts in the field have begun warning the public, tipping people off to precisely how “the art of compliance” works. Some critics have taken to arguing for new government controls on one pervasive form of persuasion— political advertising. The persuasion problem is “the essential dilemma of modern democracy,” 5 argue social psychologists Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, the authors of Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion. As the two psychologists see it, American society values free speech and pub- 6 lie discussion, but people no longer have the time or inclination to pay attention. Mindless propaganda flourishes, they say; thoughtful persuasion fades away. The problem stems from what Pratkanis and Aronson call our “message-dense ? environment.” The average television viewer sees nearly 38,000 commercials a year, they say. “The average home receives . . . [numerous] pieces of junk mail annually and . . . [countless calls] from telemarketing firms.” Bumper stickers, billboards and posters litter the public consciousness. Athletic 8 events and jazz festivals carry corporate labels. As direct selling proliferates, work­ers patrol their offices during lunch breaks, peddling chocolate and Tupperware to friends. Meanwhile, information of other sorts multiplies exponentially. Technology 9 serves up ever-increasing quantities of data on every imaginable subject, from home security to health. With more and more information available, people have less and less time to digest it. “It’s becoming harder and harder to think in a considered way about anything,” said 10 Robert Cialdini, a persuasion researcher at Arizona State University in Tempe. “More and more, we are going to be deciding on the basis of less and less information.” Persuasion is a democratic society’s chosen method for decision making and 11 dispute resolution. But the flood of persuasive messages in recent years has changed the nature of persuasion. Lengthy arguments have been supplanted by slogans and logos. In a world teeming with propaganda, those in the business of influencing others put a premium on effective shortcuts. Most people, psychologists say, are easily seduced by such shortcuts. Humans are 12 “cognitive misers,” always looking to conserve attention and mental energy—leaving themselves at the mercy of anyone who has figured out which shortcuts work. The task of figuring out shortcuts has been embraced by advertising agencies, 13 market researchers, and millions of salespeople. The public, meanwhile, remains in the dark, ignorant of even the simplest principles of social influence. As a result, laypeople underestimate their susceptibility to persuasion, psychologists 14 say. They imagine their actions are dictated simply by personal preferences. Unaware of the techniques being used against them, they are often unwittingly outgunned. As Cialdini tells it, the most powerful tactics work like jujitsu: They draw their 15 strength from deep-seated, unconscious psychological rules. The clever “compli­ance professional” deliberately triggers these “hidden stores of influence” to elicit a predictable response. One such rule, for example, is that people are more likely to comply with a request 16 if a reason—no matter how silly—is given. To prove that point, one researcher tested different ways of asking people in line at a copying machine to let her cut the line. When the researcher asked simply, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use 17 the Xerox machine?” only 60 percent of those asked complied. But when she added nothing more than, “because I have to make some copies,” nearly every one agreed. The simple addition of “because” unleashed an automatic response, even 18 though “because” was followed by an irrelevant reason, Cialdini said. By asking the favor in that way, the researcher dramatically increased the likelihood of getting what she wanted. Cialdini and others say much of human behavior is mechanical. Automatic 19 responses are efficient when time and attention are short. For that reason, many techniques of persuasion are designed and tested for their ability to trigger those automatic responses. “These appeals persuade not through the give-and-take of argument and 20 debate,” Pratkanis and Aronson have written. “. . . They often appeal to our deep­est fears and most irrational hopes, while they make use of our most simplistic beliefs.” Life insurance agents use fear to sell policies, Pratkanis and Aronson say. Parents 21 use fear to convince their children to come home on time. Political leaders use fear to build support for going to war—for example, comparing a foreign leader to Adolf Hitler. As many researchers see it, people respond to persuasion in one of two ways: If 22 an issue they care about is involved, they may pay close attention to the arguments; if they don’t care, they pay less attention and are more likely to be influenced by simple cues. Their level of attention depends on motivation and the time available. As David 23 Boninger, a UCLA psychologist, puts it, “If you don’t have the time or motivation, or both, you will pay attention to more peripheral cues, like how nice somebody looks.” Cialdini, a dapper man with a flat Midwestern accent, describes himself as an 24 inveterate sucker. From an early age, he said recently, he had wondered what made him say yes in many cases when the answer, had he thought about it, should have been no. So in the early 1980s, he became “a spy in the wars of influence.” He took 25 a sabbatical and, over a three-year period, enrolled in dozens of sales training programs, learning firsthand the tricks of selling insurance, cars, vacuum cleaners, encyclopedias, and more. He learned how to sell portrait photography over the telephone. He took a 26 job as a busboy in a restaurant, observing the waiters. He worked in fund-raising, advertising, and public relations. And he interviewed cult recruiters and members of bunco squads. By the time it was over, Cialdini had witnessed hundreds of tactics. But he 27 found that the most effective ones were rooted in six principles. Most are not new, but they are being used today with greater sophistication on people whose fast-paced lifestyle has lowered their defenses.  Reciprocity. People have been trained to believe that a favor must be repaid in kind, 28 even if the original favor was not requested. The cultural pressure to return a favor is so intense that people go along rather than suffer the feeling of being indebted. Politicians have learned that favors are repaid with votes. Stores offer free 29 samples—not just to show off a product. Charity organizations ship personalized address labels to potential contributors. Others accost pedestrians, planting paper flowers in their lapels. Commitment and Consistency. People tend to feel they should be consistent— 30 even when being consistent no longer makes sense. While consistency is easy, comfortable, and generally advantageous, Cialdini says, “mindless consistency” can be exploited. Take the “foot in the door technique.” One person gets another to agree to a 31 small commitment, like a down payment or signing a petition. Studies show that it then becomes much easier to get the person to comply with a much larger request. Another example Cialdini cites is the “lowball tactic” in car sales. Offered a 32 low price for a car, the potential customer agrees. Then at the last minute, the sales manager finds a supposed error. The price is increased. But customers tend to go along nevertheless. Social Validation. People often decide what is correct on the basis of what other 33 people think. Studies show that is true for behavior. Hence, sitcom laugh tracks, tip jars “salted” with a bartender’s cash, long lines outside nightclubs, testimonials, and “man on the street” ads. Tapping the power of social validation is especially effective under certain con- 34 ditions: When people are in doubt, they will look to others as a guide; and when they view those others as similar to themselves, they are more likely to follow their lead. Liking. People prefer to comply with requests from people they know and like. 35 Charities recruit people to canvass their friends and neighbors. Colleges get alumni to raise money from classmates. Sales training programs include grooming tips. According to Cialdini, liking can be based on any of a number of factors. 36 Good-looking people tend to be credited with traits like talent and intelligence. People also tend to like people who are similar to themselves in personality, back­ground, and lifestyle. Authority. People defer to authority. Society trains them to do so, and in many situ- 37 ations deference is beneficial. Unfortunately, obedience is often automatic, leaving people vulnerable to exploitation by compliance professionals, Cialdini says. As an example, he cites the famous ad campaign that capitalized on actor 38 Robert Young’s role as Dr. Marcus Welby, Jr., to tout the alleged health benefits of Sanka decaffeinated coffee. An authority, according to Cialdini, need not be a true authority. The trappings 39 of authority may suffice. Con artists have long recognized the persuasive power of titles like doctor or judge, fancy business suits, and expensive cars. Scarcity. Products and opportunities seem more valuable when the supply is 40 limited. As a result, professional persuaders emphasize that “supplies are limited.” Sales 41 end Sunday and movies have limited engagements—diverting attention from whether the item is desirable to the threat of losing the chance to experience it at all. The use of influence, Cialdini says, is ubiquitous. Take the classic appeal by a child of a parent’s sense of consistency: “But you said…” And the parent’s resort to authority: “Because I said so.” In addition, nearly everyone invokes the opinions of like-minded others—for social validation—in vying to win a point. One area in which persuasive tactics are especially controversial is political 44 advertising—particularly negative advertising. Alarmed that attack ads might be alienating voters, some critics have begun calling for stricter limits on political ads. In Washington, legislation pending in Congress would, among other things, 45 force candidates to identify themselves at the end of their commercials. In that way, they might be forced to take responsibility for the ads’ contents and be unable to hide behind campaign committees. “In general, people accept the notion that for the sale of products at least, there 46 are socially accepted norms of advertising,” said Lloyd Morrisett, president of the Markle Foundation, which supports research in communications and information technology. “But when those same techniques are applied to the political process—where 47 we are judging not a product but a person, and where there is ample room for distortion of the record or falsification in some cases—there begins to be more concern,” he said. On an individual level, some psychologists offer tips for self-protection. Pay attention to your emotions, says Pratkanis, an associate professor of  psychology at UC Santa Cruz: “If you start to feel guilty or patriotic, try to figure out why.” In consumer transactions, beware of feelings of inferiority and the sense that you don’t measure up unless you have a certain product. Be on the lookout for automatic responses, Cialdini says. Beware foolish consistency. Check other people’s responses against objective facts. Be skeptical of authority, and look out for unwarranted liking for any “compliance professionals.” Since the publication of his most recent book, Influence: The New Psychology of Modern Persuasion, Cialdini has begun researching a new book on ethical uses of influence in business—addressing, among other things, how to instruct salespeople and other “influence agents” to use persuasion in ways that help, rather than hurt, society. “If influence agents don’t police themselves, society will have to step in to regulate 52 … the way information is presented in commercial and political settings,” Cialdini said. “And that’s a can of worms that I don’t think anybody wants to get into.”   MLA Citation Information: Scott, Janny. “How They Get You to Do That.” Los Angeles Times, 23 Jul. 1992,                https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-23-mn-4130-story.html

This 4 – 5 full page (not to exceed 6 pages) Philosophical Essay you will be writing is designed to be a thoughtful, reflective work. The 4 – 5 full pages does not include a cover page or a resource page. It will be your premier writing assignment focused on the integration and assessment relating to the course concepts. You will use at least four scholarly/reliable resources with matching in-text citations and a resource page. All essays are double spaced, 12 New Times Roman font, paper title, along with all paragraphs indented five spaces.Topic:Consider the following philosophical puzzle: “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” (1) How is this philosophical puzzle an epistemological problem? And (2) how would John Locke answer it

Background/Context Sontag ends her book with a discussion of Jeff Wall’s art piece, “Dead Troops Talk.”  (Links to an external site.)  The final section of her book begins with the question: “Is there an antidote to the perennial seductiveness of war?” (122). To which I would add: …and what role might images play in this antidote? The Jeff Wall picture seems to be one possible answer to her question–but why? What is it doing that other images in the book are not doing? Write an essay that argues for the importance/relevance of one or more of Sontag’s ideas about looking at images of pain and suffering.  Use research to establish the terms of your argument, and use a minimum of 8 quotes from Regarding to make your points/back up your claims. Explore and define the depictions—and implicit or explicit expectations of reaction that correspond to those depictions—of the pain of others in your general sphere of experience. The book is really about the effects (+/-) of the various common images of the outcomes of global violence. Which, if any, of these image types directly affect you?  Search for quotes that relate to your freewrites on the above bullet points. Three outside sources that cover distinctly different material (i.e. referring to three different social media sites to make one point does NOT constitute three sources). Cite all sources in MLA (and include a properly formatted Works Cited page—10 points). MLA document format: (see MLA Handbook and/or Purdue OWL link) typed, double-spaced, serif-font (Times New Roman or Cambria), 1” or 1.25” margins, name/pg.# on header.  our grade will be based, in large part, on the clarity of, and reasonable basis for, your claims (these claims will be contained in and/or explained in your reflections that can be part of this essay). It will also be based on how well you meet the requirements, and on syntax, grammar and structural integrity (paragraph-paragraph and sentence-sentence coherence). essays of sophisticated analysis and argumentation that reflect critical thinking in a style both rhetorically effective and conventionally correct . You will explore a line of inquiry and limit the topic appropriately, and you will establish and state a unifying thesis or proposition.  you will use examples, details, and other evidence to support or validate your thesis and other claims.

Discuss how the skills of writing, researching, presenting, working in teams, and using technological tools help you in your current role in the workplace. Which of these skills do you find most important right now? Which skills do you think will help you achieve future goals? or Look up an occupation you are interested in pursuing after you graduate from school. To find information on occupations, you can visit the Occupational Outlook Handbook at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/. Search for a career you are interested in, such as software developer. Then, click on the What They Do tab. Compare the duties of that occupation to what you learned in this class. Which skills that you developed in this class will be most useful to you in your chosen career?

Throughout Chapter two of Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud spends a great deal of time explaining his definition of icon. His definition of icon compares with the literary definition of symbol. How do these definitions combine to explain how archetypal characters, understood symbols, and illustrations are used in graphic novels/comics? Explain.

1) Choose two of the three films we are watching for this essay cycle to watch . One will serve as the basis for your response and the other for your reply to a peer. 2) Before you view the film, be sure to review the lessons on the critical lenses we are using for this paper (located here: Feminist/Gender Studies & Ethnic Literary Studies- Critical Theory Lecture). 3) As you have view the film, consider take notes on aspects of the film that could be interpreted through the critical lenses we are using for Essay 3. 4) Once you have finished viewing the film, choose a critical lens & key question to serve as the basis for a 2 paragraph (300-500 word) response. Be sure to use specific details (try to quote if you can using the closed captioning and transcript options available through the Kanopy database). Be sure to carefully proofread your composition. 5) Review the responses of your peers in the discussion board and choose ONE peer response based on the second film you watched to reply to. Compose a 1 paragraph reply where you seek to expand on your peer’s argument by presenting additional evidence and insight. NOTE: Be sure to carefully proofread all your work for this discussion board. ============================== For reference, here are the key questions from the critical lenses we are using for this essay. Feminist Criticism, Gender Studies, Queer Theory How are the sexes depicted in the text? What are the power relations between the sexes? How is sex and sexual identity depicted in the text? What sorts of dualisms are present in the text (man/woman, straight/gay)? Does the text present identities that are alternative to the gendered or sexual norms? Does the text present these depictions as accepted or abnormal? In either case, how does the depiction complicate our understanding of gendered and sexual “norms.” Ethnic Literary Studies How does race appear in the text and how does it shape the way we interact with one another? What is the significance of depictions race in the text? How does the text reflect or undermine dominant cultural perceptions of race? How does the text depict a distinct ethnic identity? How does the text depict the lived experience of an ethnic identity in American society? How does the text depict racism as a persistent force in American society? How does the text accurately reflect the experiences of victims of racism?

Discussion Four- Assuming that all of us have written your Essay One Assignment: Conflict in Literature, let’s discuss our papers.  Specifically, which story did you write about?  Why did you select that story?  And what were the major points about Conflict you addressed in your paper?  Did the conflict in the story remind you of any conflict you have had in your life?  Please write a minimum of 150 words, and respond to the posting of at least two class members. To receive credit for this discussion, you must at a minimum (1) write a posting a minimum of 150 words.; (2) post your reply no later than 11:00 PM Sunday, September 20 (but I recommend you try to reply earlier this); and (3) respond to at least two classmates’ replies to the Discussion no later than 12:00 PM Sunday, September 20- writing three to five sentences in your response to a classmate’s posting.Then after posting your reply, respond to at least two other class members’ original postings to the Discussion I posed above in Discussion Four, writing three to five sentences. You may respond to more than two class members.  To post your Reply to another class member’s original posting, click on the “Reply” box below the class member’s posting to which you want to respond; then write your response to the original posting of the other class member, and click on “post Reply.”

Select three of the essay development patterns and explain them in your own words. What are the important considerations in each type of essay development?