Issues Paper Thesis

A person who achieves a high standard of fame and world recognition has an obligation to their community. The more fame and recognition that a person or group obtains the greater the scope of their influence becomes.

I'm not sure if that's exactly a full thesis statement but it's the best way that I can phrase the idea that is bouncing around in my head right now.

RA Reflection

I really didn't mind writing the RA. I was used to doing papers like this in high school so I felt very prepared. I picked the Wal-Martian article and I think that was a good article for me. There were very specific examples that I could pick out of the text to use in my analysis.

I really liked how we did the peer editing this time around. I liked being able to see how several different people worked with their articles and to see their approach to the assignment. I feel like I got some really good feed back from the people in my group.

Doing OpEd before the RA also really helped me. In the OpEd we had to discover our voice and how we were going to make our own voice heard in our writing. I think that by learning that skill in the OpEd process I was able to carry it into my RA.

Altogether I liked writing the RA and I think I learned a lot from it.

Figurative Language in my Article

Diction is a main form of figurative language in the article "Wal-Martian Invasion." The author is very sarcastic and informal with her language. In order to bring about she uses words that over-exaggerate her point. Some of these words include: abysmally, engulfed, and ostensible. Personification is also employed to some extent in the article. The author describes Wal-Mart as this alien creature that is out to do evil while in all reality it is merely a company. Instead of making reference to the head leaders of Wal-Mart she makes jabs at the company as a whole, giving it these characteristic that are alien like. Overstatement is also all over the article. The whole article is a gross exaggeration and the author continually makes overstatements that not only dissuade the reader, but also, hurts her credibility.

RA Thesis and Body Paragraph

I chose the article "Wal-Martian Invasion"

Thesis: The article, "Wal-Martian Invasion" presents an ineffective argument to convince Americans that Wal-Mart stores, and their mass expansion, are an issue in our country today due to the informal diction, vagueness of examples, and excessive over exaggeration. Because of these faults the author fails to convince her readers that a change needs to occur.

Body Paragraph: Over exaggeration through the entire article fails to establish a sense of credibility in Enrenreich. Excessive exaggeration dissuades the reader of the point that Ecnrereich is trying to make. The reader has a hard time believing that she truly knows what she is talking about. Enrereich is giving her straight opinion and fails to back up her argument with valid facts from a valid source. "Earth to Wal-Mars, or wherever you come from: Live with us or go back to the mothership." By saying that the Walmart company and employees are from another world Enrenreich demonstrates that her view of the issue is too clouded by her own opinion to include actual facts and statistics about the issue. This diminishes her credibility as a writer.

OpEd Reflection

Over all I really enjoyed writing the OpEd. I liked that we could pick our on topic. That really helped me to be interested in what I was writing. I felt like the writing process that I used for this paper was the best that I've used so far and that this is also the best paper I've written in a while. I loved that it wasn't very formal. I was able to really put my personality into it and create my own voice.

The conference really helped me in my writing. Chris was able to see things that I never picked up on and if I hadn't had a conference I think my writing would have struggled because of that. However, the writing center did not help me. The tutor that was working with me was really rude. I could tell that she didn't agree with me and I felt that that created a bias. She was more picking on my opinion than my writing. She did have a few good points but it wasn't a good experience.

I think that my writing was greatly improved by working on this OpEd and I hope that what I have learned can carry with me into my other papers.