Public Service Annoucement

Cell phones have been one of the greatest technological inventions known to man; the ability to verbally communicate with someone who is hundreds or even thousands of miles away in almost a complete instant, or sending someone a message in fewer than 30 seconds is remarkable! But when is the right time to use a cell phone, and when is the wrong time to use one. Cell phones are starting to take over our society. Now day’s people usually can’t even last a day without using a cell phone. Its people like these who are abusing cell phone by using them while driving. If we don’t find suitable way to prevent people from using their cell phones while driving, there will only be continuation of catastrophic events that essentially only worsen our society.    

            The usage of a cell phone while driving has caused over 2,600 death and 330,000 injuries in the U.S every year, according to journal’s publisher, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. According to Carnegie Mellon University the usage of a cell phone while driving reduces the amount of brain activity by 37 percent. That means people using cell phones have a slower reaction time to use the brakes or maneuver out of a possible accident. According to Nationwide.Com they polled what the worst distracted driving offense would be, in which 66% of the voters voted texting while driving. For instance November 2008 a9 year old child was riding her bike, on her way home from school. She was only 30 seconds away from her home when she was hit head-on by a 5,000-pound SUV. According to the Police report the driver was finishing up a phone call at the time of the accident. Her mother was on her way home when she saw the crowd near her house, where she would see her daughter (Erica) lying unconscious on the pavement. Erica died at the hospital. It’s sad how people feel the need to text or talk to someone right then and there instead of focusing on the road. You know there is a problem in our society when it is absolutely mandatory to risk your life and the life of someone else’s to text someone back or answer a phone call.

            What a lot of States are doing now which is a great idea is outlawing the usage of a cell phone while driving. So far only 12 states have passed this law, and ordering police to issue tickets to anyone using their cell phone while driving. According to the University of Utah, distractions from cell phone use while driving enlarges the reaction time of the driver just as much as being under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. An example of just how bad the usage of a cell phone while driving actually is, is The 2008 Chatsworth train collision. This collision was the cause of the Metrolink computer train engineer who was distracted by text messaging. This led to the death of 25 people and 100 injuries. If this man would have only waited and not tried to multitask he wouldn’t have ended the lives of 25 people and injured 100 more on top of it.     

            In conclusion it is necessary for our society to take action by help preventing the usage of a cell phone while driving. You can save innocent lives by just putting your phone down while driving and focus on the road. A simple text or a 30 second phone call (while driving) can change someone life in a instant don’t let it be you or a friend. Do the right thing and don’t text and drive.  

Our Economy: Good or Bad

The article that will be viewed and analyzed is (“What’s happening with the U.S. and El Paso Economy?”, by Alejandro Fernandez). This paper will be discussion how this article uses ethos pathos and logos to help grab the reader’s attention. The paper also uses these analyses so the reader can identify the main idea of the article, and to understand what’s the logic, emotion, and the credibility behind the article. The main point of this article is expresses the current economic state of the U.S and how El Paso as an individual has tried to hold its own threw this recession.

            In the article (“What’s happening with the U.S. and El Paso Economy?”), the author uses logos to give the reader some concrete knowledge regarding the economic issue occurring in El Paso. For instance, the author starts out by identifying what the United States and other countries are doing to prevent a recession like the one in the 1930’s, by lowering of interest rates, increasing public spending, cutting taxes This is a usage of logos because its giving the reader an idea of what countries are doing to prevent a economic down trod,. The author also uses logos by identifying the bible of economics written by Keynes, and how the world used this bible to the fix economic situation. The article then uses more logic in the second paragraph by identifying how the nation (U.S) has had a massive loss jobs and how the unemployment rate at 10% has slightly gone down .3%. The author also uses logos in the third paragraph to help relate El Paso’s recession with the nations recession. Reading paragraph three in the article, he gives you information about what El Paso’s economy is doing during the recession and how they are slowly getting back on their feet.

            Ethos deals with the credibility that the author has or has used in a particular article. In the article (“What’s happening with the U.S. and El Paso Economy?”), the author uses ethos because he wants the reader to have creditable knowledge regarding the economic issues affecting El Paso, and the United states as a whole. For instance, in the article the writer uses ethos to give you statistical information from a website called bloomberg.com, which is a website that gives is loads of concrete information about any topic. The usage of this gives the writer the credibility of his article giving it more of a persuasive argument. 

            Pathos is the usage for emotion that a writer will use to grab the sympathetic attention of its viewers.  The pathos that is being used in this article is the emotion of both distress and relief. The writer uses the emotion of distress in the article because due to the fact that the United States economy has turned into a pile of shit. And the fact that this recession that is occurring is putting  stress on people who wondering if they will ever be able to retire, will have money to put their kids through college, will they get paid or fired next week, or if they well have enough money for food to last them through the month. But the article does have a positive side, in which Alejandro Fernandez discusses how our economy has gotten a little better and a little stronger. Thus giving people the emotion of somewhat relief that newer jobs are becoming available, the unemployment rate is going down, and people are putting more money back into circulation. This give the people the emotion of relief that our economy will go bat to the strong supporting economy it once was.

            In conclusion this article uses ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade the viewer into to seeing the logic behind the writers words and to have an emotional feeling for this article. To sum it all up it seems that this article expresses the current economic state of the U.S and how El Paso how they are both becoming a stabilized economy making it easier for people to get jobs and to pay for necessities. 

Visual Analysis:On the Economic Recession in El Paso

A political cartoon is considered to be an illustrated drawling that has a hidden representation, which the picture is trying to use to get its main point across. The cartoon drawling that is presented is an illustration of a group of teachers that are trying to fix their financial crisis by starting a lemonade stand for their fund-raiser because of this recession. There are three different types of visual analysis that are being identified in the picture, which are ethos, logos and pathos. Each of these analyses will be used to help define and express the overall meaning of the illustration shown below.

The First rhetorical analysis that the author uses to help describe the overall meaning of the illustration is ethos. Ethos mainly has to do with credibility and the author’s reputation and authority he uses in the picture. The credibility in this picture is the buildings and the signs that give you concrete information on what is occurring in this picture without using words. This picture however doesn’t really have credibility simply due to the face that it is a political cartoon that is used for propaganda. So it show you the full meaning of this picture it just give you enough so you get your own view of the drawling. 

            The second rhetorical analysis that will be used to help describe the overall meaning of this illustration is logos. The meaning of logos is the logic that an artist will use to make the viewer think about the overall meaning of the picture. Looking at this picture it may seems very simple, but you might not see is how it has its own type of logic behind the drawling.  Looking at this picture you can see that there are 3 people standing in front of an education building, thus giving the viewer the idea that the three people are possibly teachers. Another piece of logic the artist uses in the picture is fact that these teachers are trying sell lemonade to help fix their financial issues, which is kind of ironic because usually when you see an lemonade stand its most likely owned by a group of kids trying to get money for some candy or something. The logic that the drawling is showing is how our society is at economic decline, and is forcing people to go out and find ridiculous alternative ideas to make more money. Some other logic behind this pictured is that the picture can be viewed in two different ways.  The first way to view this picture is that it’s a group of teachers that are trying to fix their financial crisis by starting a lemonade stand for their fund-raiser because of this recession, or take a look at it this way. Picture the young and poor kid as our society as a whole and the three people is our government who are forcing people to pay money in order to get an education. It’s weird how something can appear one way and be another.

             The third and final rhetorical analysis that the author uses in the picture is pathos. Now pathos mainly deals with the emotion that is being influenced from the people and the environment in the drawling. In this picture you can see the emotion in the three teachers how they have that dull look as if they aren’t very enthused on the idea of fundraising money for their financial crisis. Also in the picture if you look and see how the kid’s emotion reflects the overall view of the picture. Now this kid could be sad because the teachers might have taken his lemonade stand idea, or that he can’t attend school because there aren’t any more teachers available due to the recession going on in the picture. This picture also evokes emotion because the teachers who are out of jobs due to the financial crisis, according to the picture, can’t teach the kids who are the future of our society. So showing this kid standing there with a sad look on his face puts a feeling of sympathy for the kid and teachers who are possibly out of jobs.

            In conclusion the Political cartoon that the Drawler had crated uses Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to grab the viewer’s attention, and to feed the viewer knowledge of a certain topic effect the society as a whole. The attention he might be trying to get is for people to see the economic recession that is occurring in our society. This recession is causing our school’s to make us pay and to learn .And how without schools there would be a huge society lag and culture lag making our society from in only two classes in our society upper and lower class. This can be fix if someone can find a way to regulate what should and should have a price, like a glass of lemonade.

community problem report

Depression is a period of general economic decline, also defined as a decline in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for two or more continuous quarters.   The students of El Paso are economically being affected due to this current recession. This economic down trod is effecting not only the students but also the El Paso community.  If we don’t solve this problem there's a possibility that less and less students well be able to afford going to school at UTEP.

          Since 1994, more than 30,000 jobs have left El Paso, which has greatly affected the community making it harder for people of El Paso to afford College expenses.   According to the UTEP records the average number of students that enroll to UTEP is 20,154 students.  The average amounts of students that enroll in UTEP who are residents in El Paso are 16,705, which mean that at least 80% of the students who are enrolled at El Paso are residents. (According to Beatriz Castaneda, Writer for Prospector, she says that According National Association of Colleges and Employers, employers expect to hire 7 percent fewer graduates from colleges in the class of 2010 than they hired from the class of 2009. The reason why so many employers are cutting back college hiring is directly related to the weak economy). Now if the graduates from college are having trouble getting jobs, it must be a lot harder for students and even their parents to get jobs to pay for college expenses while attending. Now it’s not like college expenses are going to decrease any time soon, if anything the tuition will only continue to increase because of the demand for money, making students have to pay more for books, tuition, and transportation to and from classes. According to the Prospector titled: Students prepare to spend on textbooks, writer Natalia Quiroz interviewed Raul Mariscal, (manager for Textbook Express, said he has seen a decline in book sales due to the economy.) This is making it harder for students to pass or even want to register for classes. Now, according Jorge Gomez a writer of the Prospector titled: Graduation rates at UTEP, a slow train to the future, (he states that among the UT System's nine universities, UTEP has the lowest graduation rate within the last six years, this is corresponding to a 2007 report by the UT System Office of Academic Affairs and Office of Institutional Studies and Policy Analysis).This Writer (Jorge Gomez) also states that in 2007 we had surpassed the 20,000 student enrollment mark, 4,000 of these are incoming freshmen, this is where it gets interesting. According to the statics   out of those 4,000 students, amazing only 80 will graduate in 4 years. This sounds ridiculous, there is no possible way that 3,920 student’s couldn’t graduate in 4 years just because they couldn’t hack it in college. So the only logical reason is they are trying to juggle school, work, and there family all at once, which makes this very complicated.

          Alright let’s make it a little interesting, here is a little example to give somewhat of an idea of the economic struggle occurring in El Paso (I assure you these people are fake).Now, Barry Mcflunkerton lives on the east side of El Paso with his son Ryan (now with the divorce rate climbing all over the united states, this is probably the most ideal example for the society that we live in now), Ryan has graduated from El Paso high and is planning on going to college at UTEP. In order for Ryan to graduate in his planned time of 4 years, he will have to pay close to 8,000 dollars a year for tuition including books, traveling expenses (to UTEP and back to his home), and of course other school supplies. This is going to cost 1/5 of his father’s income every year, since according to ((www.City-Data.com)  the average adjusted gross Income (AGI) in 2004 is  $37,518).Now this has most likely gone do to the economic recession we are currently in. This is making it a little difficult for Ryan’s father to pay for his son to attend UTEP as a full-time student. And you can’t forget the current living expenses he and his son already have to pay off. So how similar problems like this get solved in economic state that we are in now days?

          There’s couple of ways to solve or fix this issue or issues similar to this, for instance two programs that are already being used by school is the Student Financial Aid and the Student Loan programs. But what about the people who can’t afford taking student loans, and the ones who are ineligible for financial aid, are they supposed to just give up their college dreams? According to Jose Martinez, also a writer for the prospector titled: Additional student fees may fund scholarships; (He states that The UTEP’s Student Government Association and state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of District-29(El Paso) are working on passing a bill In the Texas Legislature that will help fund scholarships. This bill will create a student benefit scholarship funded by the students, charging each student $1 per credit hour). This seems like a brilliant idea, each student pitching an average of 8 to 12 dollars per semester will add up to an estimated guess of 200,000 per year. This bill can be very effective or a disaster depending on whether students can continue to pass classes and not have to repeat. A couple other ways we can fix this economic depression effecting El Paso Students is that we could consult with the student government to help reduce book prices, school supplies, and other school expenses. Something that I really hope gets changed to help better the recession that is affecting the El Paso students is the education cost increase. According to Juan Manuel Ramirez IV, a writer of the prospector titled: Enrollment up despite economy, (he states that the Texas state Legislature voted to deregulate tuition, which has been steadily rising since 2003. This is giving the schools the right to regulate on how much to charge their students for tuition). This can be good, but in order to fix this economic problem the choice should be give to the state to decide on how much each schools tuition should cost based on the average adjusted gross Income (AGI) in that particular city. Although this will affectively work it might cause some schools to cut down on school expenses causing some teacher to lose their jobs which we don’t want. There’s is also another possible idea that the school can start a program for students to loan money from the school and in return complete various amounts of community service hours for the University. (Examples such as, Food drive for welfare and homeless people, Trash clean-up around the Campus, and tutor services at the library for students (if qualified depending on GPA).

In conclusion this economic recession is affecting everyone very hard, and it’s going to be tough for our society to bounce back from the great debt we are in. The best idea is to keep on pushing threw, otherwise less and less students well be able to afford going to school at UTEP, which could possibly lead to a series of teachers being laid off. The best bet is to find a suitable program that works best for the UTEP community. It could possibly be the only solution to the debacle we are in.  

Work Cited

·         http://www.utepprospector.com/2.7382/graduation-rates-at-utep-a-slow-train-to-the-future-1.1035494, By Jorge Gomez Published: Thursday, March 26, 2009, Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010 10:01

·         http://www.utepprospector.com/2.7382/job-market-still-bleak-1.1034722, By Beatriz Castaneda ,Published: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 , Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010 10:01

·         http://www.city-data.com/zips/79902.html

·         http://www.utepprospector.com/2.7382/students-prepare-to-spend-on-textbooks-1.1034912 By Natalia Quiroz ,Published: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 , Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010 10:01

·         http://www.utepprospector.com/2.7382/additional-student-fees-may-fund-scholarships-1.1035786, By Jose Martinez Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009, Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010 10:01

·         http://www.utepprospector.com/2.7382/enrollment-up-despite-economy-1.1035367 , By Juan Manuel Ramirez IV,    Published: Tuesday, April 14, 2009,   Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010 10:01

Agency discourse observation

The agency that I have observed and I felt that was not only interesting but also has a great relation and a great contribution to our society is Google. This popular agency is not only one giant discourse community but is also a universal search engine for cultures and all societies in the world.

At first viewed Google I didn’t think that was possible for it to have a discourse or even be considered an agency, so I looked up the definition of Agency, ironically on Google, and it states that an agency can be a business that serves other businesses. Letting that settle in brain I realized that Google is considered a businesses and is very helpful for not just a select few businesses but for all and upcoming businesses in the world. Yes Google is well known to be a search engine, but people to fully don’t understand how much Google has grown and become a powerful agency. Viewing Google I have noticed that it has its own originality which gives it its own type of agency. With its different Apps it is make viewing, the weather, news, stocks, videos and many other apps much easier. Something new that Google has now is now they give you the ability to build your own Google website almost like blogger.com but without the blogs. You have the ability to communicate with others thru instant message and e-mailing. You can also add and remove different apps to build your own personal Google website.

As I look further into the Google world I Start to see a two different types discourse communities within their website. The first one is of course there actual website with their multiple genres and, different type’s communication and specialized vocabulary you will have with other Google users. But it’s the second discourse community that I want to focus on. This discourse community is the one that the workers of Google have together. They have goals and genres and even specialized vocabulary which makes this website very interesting. For instance during lunch time at the Google company majority of the workers well all sit down, eat together like a family, in which they will converse and share new ideas about Google. Now I am not part of this discourse but I would assume that they have their own specialized vocabulary due to the fact that workers of Google are considered to be a giant family. As I spiral further into this Colossal of a website I begin to read their corporate information and their Google philosophy I discovered some of their typical genres. Besides the typical ones that are on the website (videos, music, news, shopping, images and many more), the workers of Google are all in their own specific genre. For instance they have their Board of Directors, Operating Committee, Engineers’, sales representatives, and others which all come together to form a whole community. The best thing about this website is the creators of Google make it easy for people to join their agency simply because they prefer ability of experience which give anyone a chance.            

Its originality and makes it one of the only agencies of its time. The use of this agency is to spread information to others about pretty much anything that anyone could think of, and is considered to be a building block to many other agencies and companies. I feel that without Google some of the technology and ideas we have now about our society would be unknown and possibly unheard-of. This is a very strong company that I someday I would like to join and be a part of. This agency falls under my communication major and there’s nothing better than doing something you love than doing something you hate. I would love to have a job like this and I hope one day way way in the future I can get a job like this.

In conclusion I hope you enjoyed this wild journey down the road of Google and have a better understanding of what Google is. And now I hope that you don’t see Google as just a search engine; but now as a agency, a business, and a society that is built on fulfilling other peoples goals and dreams.

Michael Amdall                                                                                                                                              English 1311   

                                                                                                               8/31/10

                                          Discourse community

            A discourse community is a social group that communicates, in part, using written texts but also shares common goals, values, writing standards, specialized vocabulary, and specialized genres. Everyone is a part of their own distinct discourse community(s). I am in 4 discourse communities, each one of them

            The first discourse community on my map is the addicting and well know Facebook. Facebook is a very popular and well organized discourse community. Facebook is a Social internet network that is use for friends and families. Some main goals for Facebook is talking, meeting, and finding friends. Facebook makes it easy to find old and new friends. A genre of Facebook is Farmville, where you can build your own farm and grow all different types of plants. Another genre of Facebook is the news feeds, which give you the latest news about recent events regarding your friends and your networks. The specialized vocabulary that Facebook has is abbreviations such as, LOL means laugh out loud, JK is Just kidding, gtg is Got to go, cya is see you later, and many others. Some other specialized vocabulary would be inside jokes and symbols, such as L J, “that’s what she said”, “birds the word” and, “Ayyuuuuhhh”. Anyone can join Facebook it has a set of easy steps to join.

            The second discourse community that I am apart of is my church. I go to church on post at Center Chapel One. It’s not a very big church but it stills a place of worship. Everyone can go to this church there are no restrictions. Some goals and values regarding this discourse community are to always look presentable when attending church make sure you stay assertive and awake during the service, everyone knows sometimes church can be tiresome, and finally you should always greet everyone with respect.  Some Genres of church are the bible, the choir, communion, and the priest. The specialized vocabulary that a church has is Gospel singing, prayer, and bible talk. These are all in each service when you go to church.

            The third discourse community is my favorite and most cherished one, my family. A discourse community this discourse community everyone has, even if it not threw blood some friends can be like a family. When you’re in a family you have a set of goals and values that you should abide by. One goal is that you should be a role model to your younger sibling(s). Some other goals are to respect and always tell them the truth. The genres of a family are family outings, diner with the family, cell phones, and cars.    

The specialized vocabulary that my family has is nick names, abbreviated text messages, letters, and facial expressions. Some examples of these are my family calls me big mike, When we text each other we use “K” for ok and “idk” For I don’t know and others. Everyone is a member of their own family. 

            The fourth and final discourse community of mine is college student. I am a college student attending at University of Texas at El Paso. The Goals and values for this community are: graduating, making money, socialize (meet new people), starting the building blocks for your future life. Some genres are the Internet, Text books, Emailing and Blackboard. The specialized vocabulary for college students is abbreviated phrases group discussions and e-mails, such as “The UGLC” meaning the Undergraduate Learning Center. In group discussions we speak as if we were in an interview, using proper grammar. To become a college student you must have a high school diploma or a GED, and good GPA. And you might need a decent amount of cash flow to get supplies.

            To sum it all up these are the discourse communities that I am in, and they are different in their own way which make me and everyone else in this world much different.