considering types

My argument will be a combination of a Causal Argument and a Proposal. I want to explain how Oak Flat got sold off to a mining company, and then propose action that needs to be taken to protect it. I may draw from past examples of land being threatened by development and then rescued.

Webb, Michaela "rainbow" 2014

My Rhetorical Action Plan

Webb, Michaela "screenshot" 2015

Audience: I want to write to an outdoor/rock climbing audience. 

Knowledge: Those in Arizona have probably heard of the Oak Flat controversy, but might not know many details. Most of them are probably familiar with and passionate about the issue of wilderness areas being destroyed for economic reasons.

Values: Rock climbers are generally very liberal and progressive, especially when it comes to environmental issues. They value the protection of rock climbing areas, and probably also the protection of native american cultural treasures

Standards of Argument: the most important arguments that I can make for this audience are going to be that oak flat is a cultural and environmenal treasure, has great rock climbing, and is being taken for development in sneaky ways.

Visual Elements that highlight the natural beauty and recreational value of Oak Flat will be the most persuasive, because that's whet my audience cares about.

The purpose of my article is to raise awarreness within the climbing community about the fight for oak flat, because they are one group that hasn't done much to act  yet, but should care about the issue.

Genres: 
Tuesday Night Bouldering Column on Rock and Ice Magazine website:  http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/tnb-raphael-slawinski-firsthand-acccount-of-everest-earthquake
http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/tnb-forgotten-hero-frank-sacherer-1940-1978

Informational Article  on a climbing or hiking website:
http://www.climbing.com/news/special-feature-the-libecki-brothers-explore-vertical-greenland/
http://www.climbing.com/news/teen-charged-in-ten-sleep-climber-shooting/

Actions/responses:
Positive: become more aware of an issue, understand the complications involved in the Oak Flat controversy, possibly do something.

Negative: "This is a politically biased article!" "The economic benefits to the area outweigh the destruction of the environment" "there are lots of other places to rock climb!"

Analyzing Purpose

In this blog post I will address and explore the purpose of my public speech act.

I want to address the potential ulterior motives involved in politics, and specifically in the Oak Flat controversy. I think that the fact that Mccain and Flake have recieved significant campaign contributions from Rio Tinto and other mining companies really says something. I think that it degrades any accountability that they had with the people of Arizona, and any arguments that they make insinuating that they're looking out for people's interests rather than corporate interests. I think that the best way for me to express this idea to my intended audience is through a short op-ed piece in an Arizona University newspaper. This has the potential to raise awareness about Oak Flat in a demographic that is typically action-oriented and excited to get involved in things

Plausible actions/ reactions: I could see some people thinking that I'm just an angry hippy. I need to be careful not to come accross as too pissed off. If I do a good job I might be able to begin or continue the conversation for some people about campaign financing laws and their immediate effects on an Arizona issue.

Not Plausible: I don't think that my op-ed piece will spark any immediate action. It's purpose is to start a conversation and get people thinking, not necessarily to create immediate change. These issues are incredibly complicated, and no one act of public speech can create noticeable change.

Chain of likely consequences: My article could get people thinking more about campaign financing, and has the potential to impact people's stance on the issue of Oak Flat. It has the potential to spark some action at a university level. It also has the potential to get people thinking about the issue of campaign financing on a larger scale: the upcoming presidential elections.

Possible audience: I want to reach out to other university students because they're a demographic that generally cares about things and wants to be involved in action.

Webb, Michaela "Purpose: Nap Time" 2013

Analyzing Context

Webb, Michaela "sleeping brother" 2012

1. Key perspectives and schools of thought? Major disagreements? Major ideological disagreements? The two main schools of thought are that there shouldn't be a mine build on Oak Flat, and that there should be. Within those there are many different groups that think those things for different reasons. There's the San Carlos Apache who generally believe that their sacred site should be protected and that their culture and beliefs should be honored and should not be destroyed as they have been over and over throughout history. There's the environmentalists and recreators who believe that Oak Flat has value as a beautiful wilderness and that a mine would ruin that. There's the politicians who are the reason that Oak Flat is in jeapordy who say they value economic growth. With a little more digging, though, it becomes evident that there are ulterior motives involved in their decisions. 
2. Possible common ground: The only possible common ground that I see between those who want a mine and those who want to protect Oak Flat is that probably even the San Carlos Apache value economic growth. They just don't want it as a result of a mine that destroys so much.
3. Actions requested from the audience: Those who want Oak Flat to be protected are asking for the audience to join with them in trying to make that happen: to sign petitions, come to rallies, pressure lawmakers to make the right decisions. Those who ant the mine to be constructed don't really have to ask anyone for anything: They have the power in this situation.
4. Perspectives useful to my argument: I think that I want to focus on the ulterior motives of the politicians and the sneaky methods that they used to pass the bill that opened Oak Flat up to mining. I think that because of this the perspectives that will be useful to me are those that critique corporate campaign financing, as well as those that exemplify the value of Oak Flat from a social and environmental perspective. 
5. Perspectives that threaten my argument: The main perspective that I will need to refute is that of the economic growth potential of the mine. I think that this is the only potentially valid argument for building a mine on a piece of pristine wilderness with cultural value to a group of people. 

Audience and Genre

In this blog post I will discuss two possible audiences and genres for my public argument. I will identify 4 different places to publish my argument, and I will identify 8 different examples.

• Audience 1: Arizona College Students. They would be interested because they are a typically active group and this issue is happening in their home state. 
• location 1: Daily Wildcat op-ed. This is a good place to publish my work and have it read by many students. 
• Example 1: You Can't Shoot Yourself If You Don't Own a Gun
• Example 2: Mental Health
• Location 2: The State Press: ASU student newspaper
• Example 1: Food System
• Example 2: Bern
• Audience 2: Climbing Community. Climbers are interested because there's rock climbing at Oak Flat that would be destroyed by mining development.
• location 1: Rock and Ice Magazine Tuesday Night Bouldering column
• Example 1: Why Comp Climbing is Not in Our Future
• Example 2: The Outsiders
• Location 2:
• Climbing Magazine article
• Climbing in the Next Olympics
• Half Dome Route 

Webb, Michaela "Uinta Mountains" 2013

Extended Annotated Bibliography

"The Arena: - Rep. Jeff Flake Bio." The Arena: - Rep. Jeff Flake Bio. Politico, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. This is an unbiased biography of Flake's political career. It will give me a better idea of the context for his involvement in Oak Flat, as well as a history of things that he's supported in the past.

"The Arena: - Rep. Raul Grijalva Bio." The Arena: - Rep. Raul Grijalva Bio. Politico, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. This article is important for my paper because it gives an unbiased account of Raul Grijalva's political career. I will use it in my paper to give political context for one of the key players in this controversy.

Grijalva, Raul. "Text - H.R.2811 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Save Oak Flat Act." Text. Congress.gov, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. This is the bill that Grijalva introduced to the house and senate. It will give me specific and primary information on what the bill is asking for an how it's constructed.

Jordan, James. "People's World." John McCain's "midnight Riders" Put Borderlands at Risk » Peoplesworld. People's World, 15 Sept. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. This article sheds light on all of Mccain's sneaky tactics over the last 30 years. It provides a key piece of information, which is that McCain was also involved in the last land grab from the apache people: Mt. Graham. It states that he used the same tactics for that as he is for Oak Flat.

Webb, Michaela "Chicken On a Bike" 2013

Narrowing My Focus

In this post I will choose a few questions and explain why I want to explore them more for my public argument:


Where have Mccain and Flake's campaign financing historically come from? What have they historically fought and advocated for?

I want to explore this more because I think that they aren't interested in how the things that they fight for effect people and the environment, but rather how they effect their primary campaign contributers. I think that this is going to be the basis for my argument.


What exactly happened legally with the midnight rider addition to the bill that allowed this to happen? What would need to happen legally and politically to save Oak Flat?

I want to understand the legal circumstances better because I think that that's where the biggest hole in my knowledge is: I don't know that much about our legal system and how these bills work.

Webb, Michaela "Narrowing" 2014

Questions About Controversy

For project 3 I will write about Oak Flat and the plans for mining that will likely destroy it. In this post I will write questions about the different aspects of my controversy.

• Who:

1. Who is Senator Grijalva and why does he care about these issues?
2. What is Senator Flake's history with issues like this?
3.  Has he made sleezy decisions in the past that align more with the values of his campaign contributors than the people of his state?

• What?

1. What is the involvement of outdoor recreation in the debate?
2. What exactly happened legally with the midnight rider addition to the bill that allowed this to happen?
3. What would need to happen legally and politically to save Oak Flat?

• When?

1. When is the mine going to be constructed?
2. When would it be finished?
3. When?

• Where?

1. Where are Jeff Flake and Mccain from?
2. Where is Oak Flat in relation to the San Carlos Apache Reservation?
3. Where did the San Carlos Apache historically live?

• How?

1. How has the climbing community reacted to the proposed development?
2. How have Flake and Mccain reacted to the pushback?
3. How has Rio Tinto historically treated land and people? 

Webb, Michaela "I am insane" 2013

Reflection on Project 2

In this post I will reflect on my revision process.

• What was revised from one draft to the other? What global and local changes did you make?

I focused specifically on making my intro and conclusion more interesting, and making sure that I was making an interesting argument. It's easy to write a 5 paragraph essay with a thesis and some bullshit in the paragraphs, but it's harder to say something that's actually thought provoking. If I'm going to take the time to write something, I want to engage my readers in the reading and myself in the writing process.

On a local level I focused on eliminating wordiness. I often find that the individual sentences in my first draft are wordier than they need to be. In this kind of essay, I want to get my point across as clearly and concisely as possible. This is especially important when considering the audience for this piece: it's an example for younger students. I want to exemplify clear writing.

• How does the process of reflection help me reconsider my identity as a writer?

Despite being incredibly stressed out right now, I'm actually enjoying the process of reflection. I like writing, and I think that reflection is important to identify my strengths and weaknesses for consideration in future projects.Writing right now makes me feel like it's something that I want to do more often. It's a skill that can be applied to any discipline.

Webb, Michaela "Death Valley" 2014

Reflection: I read Steph and Zayla's blog posts. Steph and I both focused on making our writing more clear. She worked on this on a structural level, while I found that on a sentence level my writing was not always as concise as it could've been. I went through and took out unnecessary words.

Project 2

Here is a link to my final project #2

Webb, Michaela "Bullets and desert" 2015

Punctuation part 2

For this post I read the sections unnecessary commas, the semicolon, and quotation marks.

Unnecessary commas:

• don't use a comma after the last item in a series.
• My general rule for commas is to use them when it feels right and not use them when it doesn't. I think that this generally works out pretty well. All the examples from the book of where not to put a comma are instances that sound weird to put a comma anyway.

Semicolon

• used to connect parts of a sentence that could stand alone but are related.
• the book gives a handy list of words and phrases that signify that a semicolon should be used

Quotation marks

• used for titles of short works
• no quotation marks for long indented quotes
• use single quotation marks for a quote within a quote

Webb, Michaela "desolation wilderness" 2013

Paragraph analysis 2

Here is a version of my Rhetorical Analysis with comments and analysis of all the body paragraphs. Overall It was pretty ok, and alot of the work is going to be on a sentence-level. There were a few paragraphs that need organizational help and are messy idea-wise.

Webb, Michaela "Cactus" 2014

Reflection on Project 2 Draft

I read and commented on Chad and Austin's essays.

I will answer the bulleted list of questions on page 197 of "A Student's Guide"

• Yes, I do have an identifiable thesis. I think that I do a pretty good job of being specific about the rhetorical strategies used. I don't use the words "ethos, logos, pathos" in my essay. I think that my thesis could be cleaned up a little bit. I'm still a little confused about how to go about creating both a rhetorical analysis and an exploration of how rhetoric is used in my field. It feels like there are two distinct parts of my essay right now, and I think it would be more effective if both aspects were more integrated into each other.
• I think that I could explore some more interesting ways of organizing my body paragraphs. As it is now, I'm kind of falling into the trap of just going down the list of rhetorical strategies that the author uses and writing a paragraph about each. 
• I need to add a paragraph that analyzes the context a little bit more. I focus too much on the rhetorical strategies.
• Yes, I did a good job of this
• I think that I could cut down the long quote that I included. It takes up a big block of text, and is visually overwhelming. I need to find a couple other key quotes to illustrate my points.
• I do answer the so what question. I think that my new conclusion is much more interesting and big-picture than my old conclusion

Webb, Michaela "close up of the road" 2014

Revised Conclustion

In this post I will revise my conclusion. I think that my new conclusion is more interesting and adds the broader significance of my topic.


Original Conclusion:

Mckibben is a masterful writer as well as an expert in the field, and it shows in this article. That being said, I think that the article is so opinionated and politically charged that his argument is only accessible to a small fraction of the population. This group probably already agrees with him. Anyone who isn’t already environmentally minded might stop reading after the first paragraph. This is partly a function of the stratified nature of politics in the United States right now. People connect environmental issues with one side of the political spectrum even though they are going to affect us all in the future.  If people don’t see themselves as “environmentalists” or “liberals” then they don’t want to talk about the environment. Mckibben’s argument is that Obama isn’t doing nearly enough for the environment, and many people are unwilling to look as far left as Obama let alone further left. I’m not sure if there’s anything that Mckibben could do rhetorically to overcome this obstacle and reach more people. This is a problem that anyone arguing something controversial is going to run into.



New Conclusion:

Understanding how rhetoric is used to persuade audiences is invaluable for trying to address environmental issues. Persuading people to change their personal behavior as well as fight for policy change is, and will continue to be, one of the most valuable skills for environmental change-makers and leaders. Bill Mckibben is a master at this. He has been a key player in rallying people to engage in public protest and has helped start numerous university divestment movements. One of the most important jobs of environmental writers is to leave readers feeling hopeful enough to act. In Mckibben's article "Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story", he does just that. He begins by engaging readers emotionally with facts and imagery, and ends with hopeful tales of successful environmental movements. Powerful and effective use of rhetoric in environmental writing and speaking by people like Mckibben has the potential to positively impact the future of humans on this planet.

Webb, Michaela "Monsoon over Mexico" 2014

Revised introduction

In this post I completely re-worked my introduction. I think that my new version uses less broad generalizations, and more effectively lays out the importance of the issue as well as the skill of rhetorical analysis in my field. I also think that the 2nd version eliminates the need for an introductory section explaining the project.

Original Intro:

In 300 years will there still be rainforests in Brazil? Will it snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California? Will the Colorado river still run? What can we do as a society to ensure that the answers to these questions are favorable to humans?  The issue of how to address Climate Change is the biggest public environmental discussion of our time. Scientists almost unanimously agree that Climate Change is happening and that it is a direct result of human activities, and that the consequences of inaction will be devastating. Because of this, one of the main jobs of environmental activists today is to write about these issues in a way that gives readers hope and spurs them into action rather than overwhelming them into apathy. How do climate activists make arguments that are both compelling and accessible to the general public about a topic that is societally controversial? Bill Mckibben is a leading climate activist and environmental journalist writing and thinking about climate change and how to address it. In his 2013 article titled "Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story", he employs compelling and clear language to push for action. He uses shocking facts about the direness of our environmental situation, and potent language to emphasize that Obama has let us down when it comes to climate action. He ends with emotionally-charged stories of grassroots action and a hopeful tone for the future to leave readers feeling empowered to fight for change and pressure politicians into doing the right things.

Revised Intro:

President Obama recently travelled to Alaska to see firsthand the effects of climate change. In his travel log from the trip, he stated: "It’s my hope that decades and decades from now, when this generation has long since left the planet, we will have acted decisively. We will have left those generations with a planet they can continue to thrive on." This is a nice sentiment, but how much has Obama actually done during his time in office to combat climate change? This is the question explored by leading climate activist and environmental journalist, Bill Mckibben, in his 2013 article titled "Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story." An understanding of rhetorical strategies, how they are used, and how to use them, is vitally important in environmental fields because addressing environmental problems on a large scale will require convincing and mobilizing large groups of people for change. In this article, Mckibben uses shocking facts and about the direness of our environmental situation and powerful imagery to engage readers emotionally in the issue. He lays out stark contrasts to illustrate his main claims, and emphasizes them visually using bullet points to make it very clear to readers what he's arguing. He ends with emotionally-charged stories of grassroots action and a hopeful tone for the future that leaves readers feeling empowered to fight for change and pressure politicians into doing the right things.

Webb, Michaela "direction" summer 2015

Punctuation Part 1

Webb, Michaela "sunrise moonset" 2015

For this post I read 3 sections form the Grammar part of "Rules for Writers".

Run-on sentences:

• Independent clauses that haven't been joined correctly (they could stand alone in a sentence)
• They should be joined by either a comma and coordinating conjunction or a semicolon
• To revise, you can either use a comma and conjunction, insert a semi-colon, separate the run-on into two different sentences, or restructure the sentence.

Make Pronoun References Clear

sometimes issues occur when a pronoun:

• Could refer to two possible antecedents
• Is placed too far away from its antecedent
• This, that, which, and it should generally refer to specific antecedents rather than to whole ideas
• Pronouns shouldn't refer to implied antecedents. 
• Use who, whom, whose to refer to people

Choose adjectives and adverbs with care

• Be careful with adverbs and adjectives and their different applications.
• Adverbs end in -ly
• Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs

My general feeling about english grammar is that it should be engrained in the minds of native english speakers. I don't find it very valuable to explicitly learn english grammar because I can usually tell if something is gramatically wrong by the way it sounds. 

Reflection:
I read Chad and Austin's essays.
I noticed a few instances of ambiguity in pronoun references. I think that this is a pretty common problem for writers. Chad wrote:

 "By analyzing Trump's policy for immigration or any other candidates policies, we can get a better understanding of what that person stands for and how they plan to convince other nations and the official here at home to support their ideas."

I think that he could've used a pronoun rather than saying "that person". he has already established that he's taking about Trump, so he could just use "he".

Draft of Rhetorical Analysis

Here  is the draft of my Rhetorical analysis. I would like to know specifically what you think about:

• The way I structured it by introducing the essay to my audience, writing the essay, and then analyzing my own essay for my readers.
• The thoroughness of my rhetorical analysis: could I get more from it?
• The internal organization of my essay

Thanks!

Webb, Michaela. "Alex on OP" 2014

Practicing Summary and Paraphrase

In this post I will be practicing paraphrasing 

"None of that (grassroots movements to combat climate change) cures the sting of Obama's policies nor takes away the need to push him hard. Should he do the right thing on Keystone XL, a decision expected sometime in the next six months, he'll at least be able to tell other world leaders, "See, I've stopped a big project on climate grounds." That could, if he used real diplomatic pressure, help restart the international talks he has let lapse. He's got a few chances left to show some leadership."

My paraphrase: Environmental activist and journalist Bill Mckibben argues that the people of this country need to continue to pressure Obama to make the right decisions for the planet. Obama has a few key decisions coming up, namely whether or not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. He has the opportunity to make a bold statement to the rest of the world and use the diplomatic power of the United States to move the world forward, rather than backward, in climate action. (Mckibben)

My Summary: Despite past failures, it's not too late for Obama to show leadership in climate action.

Webb, Michaela "Photographic Paraphrase" 2015

Project 2 outline

I thought that the section in the reading about conclusions was the most valuable part. I remember being taught to just re-state my thesis in the conclusion, but when you read any good writing, the conclusion is always more than that. A conclusion should open a topic up to readers to think about more rather than closing it down. That's why I will provide some thoughts on the effectiveness of Mckibben's rhetorical strategies in persuading the audience in the conclusion.
I'm planning to use a fairly unconventional structure for this essay. Because we are explaining how to write a rhetorical analysis in addition to writing a rhetorical analysis, I'm going to structure it as a meta-analysis of my own rhetorical analysis to show but also explain how it's done.

P1) I will start with a paragraph explaining what a rhetorical analysis is and how write one. I will then explain that later in the essay I'm going to do a rhetorical analysis of an article in our field.



P2) Here I will begin the actual rhetorical analysis of my article.

• Introduce topic, idea, and author of article. 
• Thesis: In his 2013 article titled "Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story", Bill Mckibben, a prominent climate activist and journalist, employs compelling and clear language to push for action. He uses shocking facts about the direness of our environmental situation, and potent language to emphasize that Obama has let us down when it comes to climate action. He ends with emotionally-charged stories of grassroots action and a hopeful tone for the future to leave readers feeling empowered to fight for change and pressure politicians into doing the right things.

P3) Focus on rhetorical context of article...

• Bill Mckibben's story and information relevant to the article
• Specific readership/audience of Rolling Stone Magazine: Liberal leanings.

P4) Shocking facts and stories... 

• They engage readers (especially those who care about the environment) emotionally.
• They provide an engaging narrative framework for the article
• They might be alienating to some readers who are already anti-environmentalist. 
• He uses these strategies to emphasize how weak Obama has been environmentally.

P5) Societal viewpoints on the topic: the shocking facts and stories are effective because people care about the environment right now. 

P6) Potent language

• Engages readers emotionally and build's Mckibben's credibility as a writer and authority on the topic.
• Gives mental image of the environmental destruction.

P7) He also uses emotionally-charged stories of grassroots movements at the end to give readers hope for change and empower them to fight for what's right.

• Importance of ending on a positive note in environmental journalism: Don't overwhelm people into inaction.

P8) Conclusion of Rhetorical Analysis:

• Say something interesting that I haven't already talked about to leave readers thinking. 
• Final reflection on effectiveness of Mckibben's rhetorical strategies in accomplishing his goal.

P9) Meta-analysis

• Explain how I went about the project process-wise (using examples from the essay that they just read), and how to identify the use of rhetorical strategies in a parer from our field.

Webb, Michaela. "Clouds" 2014

Reflection: I read Zayla and Austin's blog posts, and noticed that we did some things similarly. Austin and I both feel the same way about conclusions, and Zayla and I are both using a similar structure for our essays. 

Draft Thesis Statements

In this blog post I will be drafting 2 or 3 thesis statements for the Rhetorical analysis of my text.

1. In his article in Rolling Stone (a liberally-leaning magazine), Bill Mckibben uses direct quotes from Obama and acknowledges counter-arguments to establish credibility. He then uses shocking facts about the direness of our environmental situation, and potent language to emphasizes how Obama has let us down when it comes to climate action. He ends with emotionally-charged stories of grassroots action groups and a hopeful tone for the future to leave readers feeling empowered to fight for change and pressure politicians into doing the right things.
2. In his 2013 article titled "Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story", Bill Mckibben, a prominent climate activist and journalist, employs compelling and clear language to push for action. He uses shocking facts about the direness of our environmental situation, and potent language to emphasizes that Obama has let us down when it comes to climate action. He ends with emotionally-charged stories of grassroots action and a hopeful tone for the future to leave readers feeling empowered to fight for change and pressure politicians into doing the right things.

I think that from here it's going to be hard to organize my essay to hit all the points in my thesis in an intuitive way. I will need to revise and rethink my thesis as I work into the writing process.

Webb, Michaela. "Where am I going to go?" 2015

Reflection: I read Stef and Olivia's posts. I felt like they did a good job of explaining the goals of their articles but could've done a better job of talking about rhetorical strategies used to accomplish those goals.

Analyzing Audience

In this blog I will be analyzing my audience for this assignment.

• I'm writing for a group of new students in my major (environmental studies). They care about the things involved in our major, but they don't know much yet.
• They are really just looking for information: they want to know how arguments are constructed in our field. 
• If I do a good job in this paper, they will be grateful because I helped them learn how to do a rhetorical analysis of arguments in our field. 
• I am trying to relate to them as an older and more experienced student to some newbies.
• I will need to use professional but not cryptic language to relate to them in this way.

Webb, Michaela. "audience" 2014

Reflection: I read Stef and Lia's posts. They were much more thorough than me, but I feel that I was detailed as I need to be to have a full understanding of my audience. I have very limited time the next three weeks so I'm going allocate the most time to the aspects of rhetorical analysis that I have a harder time with and to actually writing my draft.

Cluster of Obama and Climate Change

Webb, Michaela. "cluster" 

I broke my cluster into sections: Author, context, audience, message, and rhetorical strategies.

Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in "Obama and Climate Change"

In this post I will be analyzing my text for use different rhetorical strategies. I will be looking for Appeals to character, logic, and emotion.


Appeals to Credibility or Character:

• Mckibben uses the "we" voice when talking about protests and the environmental movement. This gives the impression (and rightly so) that he is personally involved in everything. 
• The piece is well-written, which increases his credibility. 
• He refrences credible sources: "To reach that two-degree goal, say organizations such as the Carbon Tracker Initiative, the World Bank, the International Energy Agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, HSBC and just about everyone else who's looked at the question, we'd need to leave undisturbed between two-thirds and four-fifths of the planet's reserves of coal, gas and oil." 
• He uses a direct quote from Obama 
• He acknowledges counterarguments: "Obama loyalists argue that these are as much as you could expect from a president saddled with the worst Congress in living memory. But that didn't mean that the president had to make the problem worse, which he's done with stunning regularity." 
• And if the audience values the planet and our continued existence on it, then he also appeals to values or beliefs shared by the audience. 

All of these strategies make him seem more credible. If I didn't already have a similar viewpoint on the issue coming in, then I would probably be skeptical of some of his criticisms of Obama's policy toward addressing Climate Change. It seems like only one side is being presented and that many of the issues are more complicated than he's giving them credit for.




Appeals to Emotion

• He uses emotionally compelling narratives: "This past August, as the largest forest fire in the history of the Sierra Nevadas was burning in Yosemite National Park, where John Muir invented modern environmentalism, the Bureau of Land Management decided to auction 316 million tons of taxpayer-owned coal in Wyoming's Powder River basin. According to the Center for American Progress, the emissions from that sale will equal the carbon produced from 109 million cars." 
• He uses shocking statistics: "we've had the warmest year in American history – 2012 – featuring a summer so hot that corn couldn't grow across much of the richest farmland on the planet. We've seen the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and the largest wind field ever measured, both from Hurricane Sandy. We've watched the Arctic melt, losing three quarters of its summer sea ice. We've seen some of the largest fires ever recorded in the mountains of California, Colorado and New Mexico. And not just here, of course – his term has seen unprecedented drought and flood around the world. The typhoon that just hit the Philippines, according to some meteorologists, had higher wind speeds at landfall than any we've ever seen." 

I think that this is one of his strongest areas. He really makes the reader feel that this is a dire and emotional issue -- it's the future of our species on this beautiful planet. The way he describes the Sierras burning or the "selling off" of the Powder River Basin is really moving, especially if you value wild places.




Appeals to Logic:

• He effectively organizes his paragraphs and ideas to lead the reader logically to his argument, 
• There are clear transitions between sections of text 
• He cites experts for much of his information.

His main strongpoint in this area is that he lays out everything very clearly so that his argument seems reasonable. He writes about the science (which he reminds us is agreed upon by almost all leading scientists and national governments)

Webb, Michaela. "my dog is cute" 2012

Reflection: I read Olivia's and Hunter's  blog posts. I realized that my article relies pretty equally on the three rhetorical approaches. This is super effective because he weaves emotional appeal into each paragraph through language and sentence-structure choices, but still had a strong logical flow and established credibility.

Analyzing Message in "Obama and Climate Change"

In this post I will be thinking about the message and purpose of my article.
The two most relevant bullet points from the "message and purpose" section of Student's Guide are:

• express an idea or opinion 
• advocate for change

I chose these because Mckibben is clearly trying to express his opinion about Obama's lack of action on environmental issues. Because Mckibben is such an influential environmentalist, it is likely that this article impacted public opinion towards Obama, and maybe even acted as a catalyst for some of the protests that have happened since (drilling in the arctic, etc.).

The bullet points that don;t seem relevant is:

• analyze, sysnthesize, or interpret

This is because Mckibben is trying to do much more than interpret a situation. This article is very much so calling for action.

I think that the article aims to explain the situation, express a strong opinion about it, and solicit action from the readers. 

Webb, Michaela. "fire". 2012

Analyzing My Own Assumptions

In this post I will be analyzing my own personal values and beliefs and their relation to the text.
This article was written recently, and is basically still relevant to today. As a society we have the same cultural beliefs about the environment as we did 2 years ago when the article was written.
My own beliefs pretty much align exactly with this article. I believe that Global Climate Change is no doubt one of the most daunting challenges facing us today, and that the US has an ethical obligation to be leading the way in Climate Action. Bill Mckibben is one of my role models in how to create positive change in the world. He has helped support numerous college and university divestment movements, and has written about the environment and climate in a way that is accessible to the general public.

I think that it's safe to say that I am biased.

Webb, Michaela. "Talk to the hand". 2012.

Reflection: I read Carrie and Jovanka's posts. One thing that it made me realize is that it could be challenging to analyze the texts objectively when we are already coming in so opinionated. It will be a good exercise for me to try and be objective towards something that I am so passionate and opinionated about.

Analyzing My text's cultural setting

In this post I will explore the cultural values, ideas, norms, beliefs that the text relates to, and how it addresses and relates to these issues.

My text was published in Rolling Stone in December 2013. Rolling Stone is a pretty progressive, liberal magazine. It has been criticized for this. It's also a magazine that tends to focus on popular culture, at least historically.

Bill Mckibben grew up in a suburb of Boston in the 1960s and 70s. His background is in journalism. He wrote for his highschool paper and was the editor of the Harvard Crimson during his time as an undergraduate at Harvard. He decided to dedicate his life to environmental issues in the 1980s. He wrote for the New Yorker for years, and then moved to the Adirondack mountains of New York and worked as a freelance writer.

The key cultural values, ideas, and beliefs that play a role in this text are environmentalism, and the idea that there is an ethical obligation to leave the planet in livable condition for future generations, and that the fossil fuel industry is fundamentally in opposition to this goal, simply because of their economic stake in the issue. There's also the idea that as a world-leader, the United States should be leading the way on Climate Action.

The text addresses all these issues very directly -- most everything is explicit and it's easy to tell what Mckibben is arguing. He lays everything out very clearly and then gives his opinion on everything. He is critical of Obama's lack of leadership and action on Climate Change, and of the fossil fuel industry.

chesapeakeclimate. "Bill Mckibben" 7/10/2011 via wikimedia commons. Creative commons license. 

Cultural Analysis of: "Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story"

My article is: "Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story" by Bill Mckibben. The cultural keywords that I identified were: "Climate Change", "Fossil fuel industry", and "Obama Administration". Although these words also have scientific, economic, and political meanings, I think that they're important enough issues as to have cultural meaning and connotations also. I don't think that I need to explain Climate Change. What I will say is that, despite being strongly backed by science, many people still don't believe that it's happening or that it's human-caused. The Fossil Fuel industry is a hugely powerful industry because of all the money that's in it. It is integral to almost everything that we do right now, but also has interests that may conflict with the survival of our species. Obama is the focus of this article. The article was written at the end of 2013, so things have changed a little bit since then.
Mckibben's thesis is basically that Obama has been very unimpressive when it comes to action on critical environmental issues (especially climate change).

Lopez, Josh. ""demonstration" 8/20/2011 via Wikimedia commons. Creative Commons license