Jake's Jungle

Stick To Your Guns

            In 2016, Geroge Watsky released a song titled “Stick to Your Guns.” In this song, he portrays powerful imagery pertaining to various perspectives in school shootings. In that same year, 45 people were killed due to school shootings. It had been the worst year since 2007(59 deaths) only to be follow by 82 deaths in 2018. His lyrics contain a powerful message of school shootings and the effects they have on society. His song portrays the views of the shooter, the victims, the media, and the politicians.

1. Are the claims generally supported or unsupported with evidence?

Their claims are not supported in the article. Russia Today cited that the “Russiagate” was false and that the scandal that accused Trump of collusion is false. They said Trump was “loaded with ammunition” while the Democrats are “suffering” from the lack of evidence in the investigation. They then insinuated that from this that America will receive more years of Trump in office as president.

2. Is there plenty of credible evidence used?

There is no evidence used. They just stated the findings of the investigation and then praised Trump while bashing Democrats.

3. Is the article made to make us emotional about the topic?

Russia Today tried to make the reader view Trump as an innocent, yet powerful figure. RT said that winning Russiagate gives Trump a perfect spot for the 2020 election. They then tried to make us look down on the Democrats for their “wild accusations.” They also said the Democrats were hiding behind walls of lies.

4. Are the words mostly positive, neutral, or negative?

Most of the words were negative and they often favored Trump.

1. Don’t Kill the Messenger (Movie)
2. Steve Cutts’ art (Short Film)
3. Dos Equis/Patron Commercial (Advertisement)

1. Begging the Question- They say “abortion is murder” and then say “killing a human embryo or a human fetus.”
2. Begging the Question- They say Euthanasia is bad and support it by saying its murder.
3. Hasty Generalization- He made a generalization about loaning things to friends.
4. Special Pleading- They are taking favoritism in their own circumstance. They are appealing to their side.
5. Distorting the Facts- He’s only stating the parts that support his side of the argument.
6. Appeal to Ignorance- He doesn’t support his argument with evidence. He just assumes it’s a better lifestyle. Appeal to Fear- “Shoot first and ask questions afterwards.” This can lead to intimidate some into believing that slogan.
7. Appeal to authority- It cites Abraham as an impeccable source. The author thinks very highly of him.
8. Oversimplification- He says who cares who the plays attribute, but a lot of people might care. Red Hearing- They started a new path for their arguement.
9. Post Hoc, Ergo Proper Hoc- They assume just because the bridge is there, people are committing suicide for that reason.
10. False Analogy Fallacy- They compare two different scenarios that aren’t quite comparable. Non sequitur- They used to small samples to support one another, despite their scenario being different.
11. False Analogy- The analogy was false and he later contradicted himself.
12. Division- They mistook an average and assumed someone could have children.
13. Hasty Generalization- They used their marriage and tried to say everyone else’s would be the same.
14. Appeal to Authority- They are using the Red Queen as a credible authority figure.

Division- Taking the outcome of a group and applying it to a person in a single example.

Composition- When you assume a conclusion of the argument because the conclusion has the same properties of the argument. For example, If Arizona is in the U.S and it is dry and arid, so is the rest of the U.S.

Equivocation- When there is a miscommunication in the argument. Two people might be discussing a similar key word, but are using that word in different ways with conflicting definitions in mind.

Non Sequitur- This is when someone collects data and assumes the reasoning behind it. For example, I went to Walmart two days in a row. One could assume I love Walmart or shopping. Realistically, I could have just forgotten a few grocery items the first time, forcing me to come back a second time.

Tu Quoque- Translates to “you too.” This would be relevant when one is talking and encouraging the ban of guns when they, themselves, have a gun. Its a hypocritical argument. Hypocritical argument.

Genetic Fallacy- This method attacks the origin and/or source of the argument. For example, if someone is for gun control, they can argue “The right to bear arms was made back when people and their government had muskets It’s pointless now to have them as the government has drones, tanks, etc.”

Poisoning the Well- When you change the topic of subject to the source or origin of the argument. This method focuses on the source or origin, as apposed to the facts and supporting evidence, of the argument.

Appeal to Ignorance- When you base your argument on something that has not been proven to be true.

Ad Hominem- When you attack the person making an argument or theory. If I, Jake, said “guns should be available to everyone,” then some would be able to attack me for the fact I have three counts of felonies and shouldn’t be trusted with either a gun or the argument.

Appeal to Authority- When you use a public figure or idol to prove a point that they have no relevancy in. It’s similar to quoting Johann Bach in a rocket science argument.

Appeal to Fear- Threatening others to believe in your view with violence

Death by a Thousand Qualifications- This happens when the arguer has an honest opinion or thought on the subject, but it is misleading. For example, I could say Pima is the best, most prestige school I have been too. While I’m not lying, I have only been to Pima, so there is no other competition.

Reasoning and Rationalization- Starting your argument with a conclusion or assuming a conclusion.

I believe ads significantly impact the average American’s life. There are several studies that show children/adults recognize logos of various companies very easily. I believe ads are played and displayed so much that they are embedded into the brains of Americans. Some ads try to show that their brands are the best and try to sell a lifestyle that appeals to the brand or product. I think it manipulates Americans into thinking that their life is not sufficient enough if it isn’t comparable to the ad. This might cause the audience of their ad to grab other products and brands to sustain that portrayed lifestyle. I think it hurts the American people and can distort their own views and morals in life.

Many Questions- When one includes assumptions with one single question, resembling a compound question. For example, “When did you eat the sandwich?,” assumes there was a sandwich, whoever you address ate the sandwich, and what time they ate the sandwich.

Hasty Generalization- A generic conclusion based off little to no evidence off a one or more samples.

Stereotype- When you take a personal bias or prejudice against a group based of a few experiences or interactions with the group.

Slippery Slope Argument- It’s an assumed cause and effect to help support an argument. It assumes if A happens, B must be the result. For instance, “If you’re for abortion, you should be for the death penalty. If you think it’s okay to kill fetuses, then you should think it’s okay to kill criminals.”

Parade of horrors.- It is very similar to the Slippery Slope Argument, but exaggerates more. For example, If you allow people freedom of speech, people will say nothing but mean and hurtful words.

False Analogy- It uses one situation as evidence to prove your point on another.

Straw Man- When one purposely distorts the argument of another to make it sound flawed or easily refutable.

Special Pleading- Arguing in favor for someone or a topic over personal bias. For instance, you would believe your own brother or sister before you believe someone else’s.

Begging The Question- Restatement of the argument. Using your argument as evidence to support your argument.

False Dichotomy- It gives two false, misleading options which don’t have to be taken. It offer A or B as a solution, but not C, D, E, etc. “Either or.”

Oversimplification- When you exaggerate the truth and distort the original argument.

Red Herring- Reasoning that misleads from the main/general debate.

Evidence

She says what she has been through with previous boyfriends. She cites the list of exes and how they feel about her.

Audience

For all women who have been treated badly by men. Mostly younger to middle aged women.

Context

She introduced herself as “just another girl” that every “bad guy” loves to mistreat. Shes in a happy relationship that turns into hell. Shes a high maintenance girl who goes for the stereotypical rich, handsome man.

Project

Shes warning the audience not to fall for guys hard. The relationship will end up “in flames.” It’s just an never ending cycled of heart break. “Boys only want love if it’s torture.”

Effect

I think she did get her opinion across. She does point out how bad things can end in a relationship. It is biased for women, but I still can relate. Anyone cheated on can relate to her argument.

Rhetorical Devices

She goes deep into detail of emotions and cycles of her relationships. She appealed to how she did so much to make the guy happy. It was great until she noticed got angry/insecure. After that point, she showed visually how she felt. She ripped pictures, smashed cars, and threw vases. She used the cat and breakfast in bed to help with her point of being high maintenance. She uses ” nice to meet you, where you been?” to form a paradox. When she says “I can show you incredible things” she did in her video.

She says “Look at that face, you look like my next mistake,” she’s indicating that the male is objectified and that every guy is a chain of awful mistakes.”

She said “I can read you like a magazine.” She states how simplistic the man is and how easy she can see through him.

“I can make a bad guy good for a weekend.” She might be trying to say that men both want to be bad and good. She might be implying she can bring the good into a man’s life.

She incorporates a ton of paradoxes, but she builds one up when talking about “being that girl” for a month. She finds out the woman her man wants to be, and then things start turning bad.

I didn’t notice the first time, but she uses the man as Sleeping Beauty. She tries to wake him but the only thing that works is biting him instead of kissing him.

Who are you as a person?

As a person, I’m a friendly easy-going guy who likes to enjoy myself. I love sports, watching and playing. I am a student and full time worker with a wonderful boxer/pitbull mutt named Jett. As a person, I am genuine

Who are you as a writer?

As a writer, I like to write to portray. I like to put you in the moment as if you were in the story. I like to navigate you through the feelings and motions as you breeze through the literature. I like to make my words sounds familiar, yet challenging. As a writer, I am artistic.

Who are you as a student?

As a student, I believe I am an ambitious and intelligent scholar. I think that being a student has presented me with a challenge in my life to overcome and achieve. As a student, I am evolving.

What roles do you play?

In society, I am a father to a 12 year old dog. At work, I am an ASM for Signet Jewelers. I am a loving and loyal boyfriend to my girlfriend of 9 months. I am an athlete. I am a fighter. I am a great cook of vegan meals. I am a man of many roles.

• What process did you go through to produce this piece? What does your process reveal about you as a writer/learner?

I went through multiple revisions and reedits on the essay. I feel like this is the most revised/edited essay I have produced. I feel it helped me develop as a writer to see my mistakes. It was also beneficial to get various others to edit the essay to point out all, if not most, of my flaws. We also went over numerous articles on how to improve our grammar and use proper punctuation.

• Have you done similar work in the past? What have you written in the past that helped inform your process for this piece?

I have not done an essay like this before. We were never as descriptive to the details of the essay. I feel as if this process breaks everything down into more simplistic steps rather than one big jump into the topic of discussion.

• In what ways have you improved your essay/writing? What is something you want to improve on?

I feel like I have improved on my descriptive writing. I feel I was able to improve it enough to notice it this work alone. I look to keep on improving that skillset. I would like to primary focus on my story telling. I want to be able to know what extra strings to pull to grab the reader’s attention. I believe some of that has been addressed with the attention to detail, but I feel there’s a “wow factor” I’m missing.

• What problems did you encounter while working on the piece?

Originally, my attention was to write the essay on an entirely different subject. So my original story didn’t come to mind like this one did. I also had trouble tying the symbol into my story. I think I was able to overcome that and make it work.

• What resources did you use that were helpful to you?

I think the most useful tool provided were the examples presented in class. I like the stories we read and reviewed in class. I found it beneficial to break down and understand the story in sections. I also like how we reviewed the guidelines of grammar and punctuation. Common grammatical errors are starting to grab my attention when going over revisions of my essay.

• How do you feel about the finished work? What parts do you particularly like/dislike? Why?

I feel proud of the finished work. I told a story about a wonderful person important to me in my life. I also was able to address what I believed were my weakest assets in writing. I liked setting the scene and describe events in detail. It helped me visually remember those events. I disliked incorporating the symbol into the story. I did find it very useful, however. I look to improve on my next writing.

• What would you like others to notice in particular when they read your work?

I would like the readers to think anytime they read my writing. I want them to see things the way I do and feel the ways as I do. I want my writing to last on people’s mind. If they take the time to read my work, they should come away from that my writing with something they can use in their own lives. I have come to realize writing is a great way of doing that.

• What did your classmates note in particular about your work?

They liked the metaphors and storytelling. They only recommended incorporating more dialogue into the text.

• What were your standards/goals for this piece? Did you meet your standards/goals? What’s one goal you can set for yourself next time?

My goal was to pull in the reader by vividly detailing the scenes of the story. I wanted the reader to be in my shoes. I feel based off the feedback, I have accomplished that

1. What did you learn about yourself as you worked on this essay? Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways do you think you did it differently? Similarly?

I learned I am a little more creative than I previously thought. I think my style was similar to a few. I feel mine was more focused on the details. I feel others were more generic on the description.

1. What might others learn from your writing/process/style?

I hope they learn to be creative and write how you remember the story. The details you remember make the stories yours.

1. What would you change if you had the chance to do it over again?

If I had a chance to do it again, I think I would throw in a more useful symbol into the story. I feel the one I used suffices, but could be better.

1. What is something you have seen in others’ writing that you would like to try to do in your own?

I know to know how to properly read and target and audience. I feel knowing your audience is half the battle. I want to be able to influence others the way previous writings influenced me.

1. What would you like to spend more time on in class? What things would you like more help on? What do you think would help you grow as a writer?

I think I’m having trouble distinguishing what to include and what not to include into my writings. How can I tell when my writings are off topic or how do I know they are useful small cues. I believe I overthink and could take out a useful detail because I overthought the idea and crashed it into the ground. I think overall, I would like to improve my story structure.

Jacob Fortner

Janel Spencer

WRT 101S

2/6/2019

Love and Remorse

I will never forget the date of March 30, 2011. That year I was a 17-year-old-senior in high school. I was attending Pocono Mountain West High School in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania. I still remember it: red brick wall exterior, white wall interior. I remember those polished, sleek hallway floors until they led into a carpet-based classroom. It was a great senior year and I enjoyed every minute of it. The education, the teachers, and my friends. The fact that I was graduating in two months made me eager, yet remorseful. I was eager to start a new life outside of school, yet remorseful for not enjoying the moments and hard work leading up to that graduation. In 2011, I never wanted to graduate. I wanted to bask in the moment of euphoria forever. I felt so invincible.

My relationship with my family, however, was another story. We have never really been close, especially at this point in our lives. I mostly hung around my friends and their family. The only person I truly loved and cared for in my biological family was my grandmother, Emma May Fortner. Emma lived in Sierra Vista, Arizona, so seeing them when I wanted to was impossible. Me being younger, I truly didn’t appreciate our moments together as much as I wish, but I still did nonetheless.

Emma was the sweetest and most caring woman I knew. She had wrinkled skin; thin, grey hair; a hunched back; and a walker stalked with an oxygen tank. I remember that wire being stretched across the floor in whatever house or condo we were in. Or when we went out, I didn’t understand she had to bring it with her. I had not fully understood what it was for. I was unaware her breathing complications originated from years of smoking cigarettes. I simply couldn’t wait for family trips and visits to see her.

I remember coming home on March 29 to see my dad’s truck in the driveway. This was peculiar because he always got home from work hours after we got home from school. As I started walking up the wooden front porch step to my mustard-brown house, I could slowly start to see my father sitting in the living room through our huge front windows. As I approached the door and opened it, I knew he was pained. He looked up and said, “Pack your stuff for a couple weeks, we are going to visit grandma in Sierra Vista.”

Right away, I felt a frog in my throat. My eyes teared as the overwhelming rush of panic came over me. My grandmother had been in bad health recently and so I knew exactly what he meant. I embraced my father as we exchanged tears. After composing myself, I took myself to my room, tears still streaming, packing whatever clothes I could find. My sister, whose room was across from mine, had already packed. She had been out of school for some time and had yet to attend college.

I had been on many trips to Arizona, most of the accompanied with my sister. My dad was in the military, so I was flown often to Arizona to live with other relatives while he was deployed. But this trip felt the longest, as if the pilot took an indirect path just to kill the time. All I could think is, What happened to her? What will she look like when I see her? What will she say to me? What do I say to her? I could feel the anxiety and tension building up.

After those long 5-6 hours on the plane, we touched down in Phoenix and were greeted by my aunt and uncle. They owned a house in Phoenix, so they picked us up and let us stay the night. I honestly can’t remember that night well. I just remember my aunt’s huge, two-story house and lovely dog, Saber. Saber was a beautiful black and brown-haired German Shepherd. I remember her shedding so much, we would joke about making blankets with her discarded coat hairs. The house was too large for just three of them, at least in my opinion. It felt more like a luxurious cave than a house.

The next day, my dad, sister, aunt, and I headed to Sierra Vista. It was about a 2-2 ½ hour drive and we got to the hospital around 10 a.m. Still unaware of the severity of the situation, I didn’t pay attention to the interactions we had with any doctors or nurses. What I do remember is my first step inside that room.

I came in and the first thing I saw was my grandfather crying. He had a tough exterior, so I knew it had to be bad. I then looked at the bed he was standing beside. It was my grandmother, at least a shell of her. I had come to realize they kept her alive artificially for us to say our goodbyes. Tears hit the floor before I could even fathom it. I couldn’t believe this could happen to her. The only person I considered family was dying and there was nothing I could do about it. I loved her more than anything and I had to face the fact that I would never see her again.

I walked up to her and grabbed and held her hand. It was already cold and stiff. I held it to my hot, teary face. I remembered the times we had together: talking with my grandma in her nice, comfy little blue home, the times she would take me to the Cove Waterpark, at Disneyland and Legoland during our family vacation, visiting Aunt Mary in California. I think my favorite memory is just how we use to watch tennis while I ate ice cream sandwiches and drank Coke out of the can. I didn’t like tennis then, but I did enjoy the time we spent together.

We all took turns saying our goodbyes. We informed the doctors and nurses that we were finished and they turned off the machine that was keeping her alive. We all stood around, just watching. It felt excruciating. Her breaths were heavy and getting shorter while her chest was struggling to rise. We all started to cry; my poor grandmother was leaving before my eyes. She finally stopped breathing and a silence fell over the room. It was the most heartbreaking silence I have endured. I looked up at the clock and it read 12:45 p.m. I remember that time specifically, and I will never forget for as long as I live.

We didn’t stay in the room much longer. I didn’t realize it at the moment, but later I realized my grandmother died in the very hospital I was born. I don’t know what to make of that. I think it’s a blessing on my part, but it’s so depressing to know she died where I started living.

Wherever I go, I always have subtle reminders of her, whether they are songs, movies, or just memories. I remember watching Sea Biscuit with her in my house in Pennsylvania. We were on the base floor watching the movie, just her and I on the couch. I remember her crying at the end because the horse won the race. I never knew how sweet and sympathetic she was until that moment. I remember her nature every time I hear “Candour” or “19 Seventy Something” by Neckdeep. The songs are about his father’s death, but gosh, it gets to me every time. I feel he shared the same relationship with his father that I had with my grandmother.

I didn’t understand the importance of appreciating the things in front of me. I didn’t know, being young, that she would go so soon. I didn’t know that our last trip to Disneyland would be the last time I would see her in good health. I didn’t know that would be the last time I would say goodbye. I think the worst part is getting holiday cards from my grandfather and not seeing my grandmother’s signature next to his. The cards always look so naked. They feel like incomplete works of art.

I’ve learned to appreciate my loved ones around me. It’s a scarce circle, but I do appreciate the ones still in my life. I will always miss my grandma, her blue house, and my high school memories. That will never change. However, I have come to understand that my previous challenges with overcoming these changes were difficult, yet necessary. It would be great to stay in those moments; they’re familiar and gratifying. They’re comfortable. They’re what you want to be constant. Although, you won’t grow if you don’t change. Change is difficult. Every blessing in your life isn’t made to last forever. I know that’s a hard bullet to bite, but it’s necessary. If you dwell on one blessing, you’ll never notice any other miracles coming your way in life. You’ll be stuck in the past and that can be dangerous and self-destructive. Sometimes, you just have to swallow that pill and move on. It’s a tough task, but I know it’s what my grandmother would have wanted.