SWA 8

         Reading through my classmates' blogs, I was able to determine that most of us are "digital natives". Our everyday lives seemed to be equipped with online activities. From writing on our English blog, to checking twitter feed, there is always something to do online. I read the very first blog from a few of my peers. I felt that this was the best way to learn about their (e)dentity.

        I read Madeline Briggs’ blog first.  I can determine from her opening entry that her (e)dentuity is centered around photography, academics, and traveling. She uses her iphone and social networking sites on a daily basis.  She uses Facebook, Instagram and Pintrest and other apps to post pictures of her travels, learn about the French culture, and to listen to music. On her blog, she says that her (e)dentity is one that not only is used to connect with friends, but to enhance her studies and to keep connected to the world. I can determine from Madeline’s blog that she has credibility as a rhetor. She is either giving her opinion about a topic or citing exactly where she is getting her information from.

        Robbie Gandy’s (e)dentity seems to be centered around social networking sites.  He uses Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, and YouTube. Gandy spends most of his online time on YouTube though. He uses this website to watch a variety of videos and discuss politics. Just like Madeline, Robbie’s other blogs have ethos as well. He cites his sources whenever he is not stating his opinions on his blogs.

         Lastly, I viewed Haliegh Homrich’s blogs.  Her (e)dentity is quite similar to Robbie’s. She spends most of her online time on social networks and her favorite website is YouTube as well. Her (e)dentity is centered around social media, which happens to be the trend for most students in the class. Homrich does use the internet for school to check Blackboard and V.I.P also. Overall, I think her blogs are credible. She has a works cited page when needed, just as Robbie and Madeline.

            Looking back on my blogs, I have learned that my (e)dentity has not changed much from the beginning of the semester. I have used the internet for research a lot more though because of this English class.  I love being able to expand my horizon on the web and use it for a variety of things. The internet does consume much of my time than it should, but I think that I get a lot out of it. I am able to learn so much from the web, whether it being from world news or social news. I do not think that my (e)dentity has tainted my real-life. I still rather converse with people in person than online. And, if all of a sudden, the government were to shut down all social media websites or the internet in general, I would still be complacent.  I try not to rely on the internet, except for research. I can do without, but it's really entertaining. I’m not afraid of privacy discrepancies too because I feel like I take the necessary steps to protect myself online.

SWA 7

The rhetoric film had claims of fact, definition and policy. The film gave facts about the current day school structure. It explained how the structure of school makes students work alone more often than working with others. The film also states the fact that students have to adapt to the school system, when in fact it should be the other way around. The education system should adapt to the students because all students do not learn the same way. The rhetoric film goes into defining education. They believe standardized test are corrupting education because the test is not a true display of students’ academic abilities. The rhetoric film believes that every student can succeed in school if the education system can adjust to their specific needs to retain, comprehend, and recall information. The rhetoric film goes into policy, and accesses how there needs to be a “shift in knowledge” and improvement in schooling.  The film goes into alternative ways to schooling students that shift away from traditional methods of learning for the future. One platform is Knewton. Knewton is an adaptive leaning system that is computer based. It’s personalized to each student and knows how the student learns best.  Another platform is Cousera.  Coursera is computer and internet based system. It enables universities to put their best courses online so that they can be available to anyone who has internet connection.

I think these future alternative ways for educating students is great because everyone does not learn the same way. I think everyone has the potential to succeed, but individuals  all take different steps  and have different paths to get there.

ILP 8

        My first outline is in general modern format. It was the most helpful for me. It helped me arrange my ideas in an organized manner that will be beneficial when writing my paper. This format helped me create strong points for my argument that i will be including in my paper. With this format, i was also able to include the counterargument and and rebuttal. 

        I used Rogerian argument for my second outline. It was not as helpful as the general modern format. I feel like this outline would be confusing when trying to write my paper. I was able to really concentrate on my counterargument with this format though. This format also helped me to understand the polices for my argument.

      The last outline format I used is the Toulmin Model. This format helped me get acquainted with my argument well. it helped me create strong points that would be suitable for my paper . I was able to work on my counterclaim and rebuttal with this outline format. I don't think this format will help me with the organization of my paper. 

Proposal

         I decided to do my paper on Americans possibly not taking the right precautions to protect themselves on the internet. It is possible that we may not need stronger cyber-security. We could just be putting too much of our personal information out in cyberspace. My paper will be arguing If we put too much of our personal information on the Internet. It will also go into policy of how we, as an individual, should and can go about protecting ourselves against cyber attacks and hackers. I will also go into detail of what people should do to make sure they are protected so their personal information will be disclosed. 

SWA 4

         Neither my Facebook nor twitter feed is credible in my opinion. I do not use or follow many credible or reliable sources. My feeds do establish good character at time though. They also establish common ground with the audience. Overall, there is not much ethos because any and everybody can post what they please. It is sometimes difficult to filter out credible and inaccurate information.

        The article I chose to analyze is credible. I selected an article on the CNN website titled “U.S. Flies B-52s over South Korea”, written Brad Lendon. Brad establishes credibility by just writing for CNN. CNN is a reliable source for current events. Brad also interviews a credible source, a Pentagon spokesman. This too helps the ethos in his article. Lastly, Brad writes in detail about the U.S. Air Force and North and South Korea. He is not biased about what America is doing for defense. He simply writes this article based of facts, and other sources who are involved in keeping up with the activity between Korea and America.

        The second article I selected is from the ESPN website called “Heat Secure 23^rd Straight Win despite Jeff Green’s 43-point Night” written by Garden.  Similar to the previous article I selected, this article also has ethos just because it is on the ESPN site. ESPN is known for keeping up with the most current sporting events. Garden interview’s LeBron James, Shane Battier, and the coach of the Miami Heat, Erik Spoelstra. He makes his article more credible by adding these inside sources because they actually were in the game. Garden gives a little background history about NBA team’s winning streaks, which also adds to the ethos.

        These different websites create different ethos because some of them are more credible than others. For example, a Facebook or twitter feed does not contain as much ethos as CNN. One may not believe something is credible until they see it on a trusteed reliable source or site. A person could have tweeted about the NBA basketball team, Miami Heat, winning their 23^rd consecutive game, but not believe it until they have seen it on ESPN. The different websites also create different ethoses because the subjects vary.

        Ethos has much to do with a varying audience because each audience member may have much knowledge about the topic that is being argued. Therefore, they will know if the argument contains ethos or not. This could also alienate other audience members because they may not know much about a specific argument and understand what has ethos and what does not. 

ILP 7

1) Situated Logos

         The key piece of evidence in this article is how the Pentagon wants to increase the Defense Department’s Command. They want more than 4,000 people to be a part of the Cyber Command than the current 900. They would like to implement three different forces under the Cyber Command to ensure security on the Pentagon’s computer systems, including “national mission force”, which protects computer systems that support the nation’s power grid and critical infrastructure; “combat mission forces,” plans and executes attacks on adversaries; and “cyber protection forces,” which secures the Pentagons computer system. According to the Pentagon, the forces are important to decrease the vulnerability of foreign computer hackers.

            I do trust the Pentagon’s opinion on why we should increase the cyber security there. I think the evidence the writer provided was enough and could not have included any other kinds of evidence. The article included a proposal on what should be done about the Pentagon’s cyber security, why it should specifically be done, and then gave example on what could happen if cyber security is not increased and the tragic things that have already happened.

2) Invented Logos

          The text makes use of the evidence by providing many examples. The author writes that the United States may have been facing a possible “Cyber-Pearl Harbor” without the needed protection. Then later goes on to state that America could be in for a national catastrophe if more technological advances are made in China, Russia, Iran and militant groups and if we don’t have the right protection.

The reasoning for this is understood because of their use of cause and effect in the article. There is only one main kind of value system being presupposed. That is, the Cyber Command increasing at the Pentagon to protect America, even though it may mean cuts in other areas at the Pentagon. They believe it’s vital to stop against emerging war attacks form the Iran in cyberspace, dismantling of the nation’s grid, transportation systems, financial network and security. The logic of the arguments made in the text makes the author credible because he interviews worker from the Pentagon, and gives many current examples.

3) Invention

           A potential research project that comes to mind when pondering upon this article is one consisting of why cyber security is important, why it needs to be stronger, examples of what could and can happen if we do not tighten our protection, and examples/ events of how it already has affected us.  I would have a great amount of detail on my project, and spend most of my time looking at proposals; seeing which ones work best for America. The majority of the articles, that I have read, go into to detail about how we should protect our cyber systems. Some proposals differentiate from one another, while others have similar plans to protect. Cyber security is a great challenge for America, and will no way be an easy task to protecting our systems. First, engineers have to be on one accord and agree upon how to make cyberspace safer, and then actually go about implementing just that.

ILP 6

The Senate and Cyber security: Finding a Path Forward written by Nilmini Rubin is about the Senate passing a cyber-security bill.  The cyber-security bills that are being proposed are not up to par with what the Senate is looking for. Therefore, the senate will not approve.  The Information Technology Industry (ITI) has worked with Senators to help make an improved cyber-security structure for Americas that will protect individuals and the country as a whole. ITI has received positive feedback for the Senate and agree that the cyber-security bill should have a strong information sharing system that is adaptable to meet constant changing dangers (Rubin, paragraph 3). For this, the article, The Senate and Cyber security: Finding a Path Forward has two strong claims, definition and policy, and also shows the claim fact.

The article displays the claim definition through the stasis theory by stating the necessities in any cyber proposal. Understanding what should be included in a cyber-proposal makes it easier to shape one and makes it easier to get it approved by senate. The writer also shows the claim definition in the article by writing about the core principles and issues in building awareness and sharing information (Rubin, paragraph 4).  One really needs to have a full grasp of what cyber security is to make a credential proposal that lives up to the Senate’s standards; therefore, definition is important in this article.

The claim policy from the stasis theory is very strong in the article. The ITI goes into depth on what they think will improve cyber security in America. They believe that leveraging public-private partnerships and building upon existing initiatives and resource commitments will help (Rubin, paragraph 5). They also believe that being able to adapt rapidly to emerging threats, technologies, and business, will help as well. They also speak upon how the proposal should focus on awareness, bad actors and their threats.

Lastly, the article states a lot of facts. The claim facts adds ethos to the article. Rubin goes in detail of what  how cyber security protects against one’s name, address, social security, credit card information, and how these things represent 95 percent of all the data compromised by cyber intrusion (Rubin, paragraph 6). She the writes, “Criminals then use the data for identity theft, phishing campaigns, and other fraud.  New breeds of cybercriminals, hacktivists, and rogue nations have become adept at exploiting the vulnerabilities of our digital world, placing consumer information as well as private and government data and proprietary systems at risk (Rubin, paragraph 6).”

Work Cited

Rubin, Milmini G. "The Senate and Cybersecurity: Finding a Path Forward - ITI Blog." ITI Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.