What did the film have to do with writing?

This film was amazing, sad, and a great story. It was about every emotion mixed into a video. This film could have many things to do with writing. How for the guy himself, it came to his only way to communicate, which was writing. How it has to do with me writing personally, I can't see much, other then it would give me an amazing story to tell others through writing. But another thing, the person who was talking through the main characters point of view, he was reading from what the guy had wrote through his high tech device. It shows that even when you can't talk, you can still write. You can write to tell your story, to vent emotions, anger, jealousy, love, all on one peice of paper. This film shows how writing could be used as a tool. As I said previously, a tool to get your story out there or to express how you feel if you can't put it in words.

Genre - The Media

The media alone as a genre can be defined as current events such as things going on in the world. What it shows are things little from the weather or different things going on in celebrities lives to more catastrophic or important events such as 9/11, war on Iraq, or the election of different government positions. I can use this for my research question because what the media shows such as different news stations or articles are usually the popular opinion on different political subjects. A lot of people don't usually look into or do more research on things such as Illegal Immigration or different government bills or laws trying to be passed so what the average American watch on the tube when they wake up or when they get back from work or read in the newspaper is usually the most information they know on something. Then those people who beleive exactly what the media says is when a conflict on opinion arises. So I could definately use media as a genre.

Genre- Advertisement

So advertisement is a very popular strategy for different political issues to get there perspective to the public. a quote from Chuck Blore, a partner in an advertising firm, "Advertising is the art of arresting the human intelligence just long enough to get money from it." This quote hits the nail right on the head for the most part. Different propositions uses tv and other advertisements to twist the facts so that voting no or yes for it seems to be in their favor. People who are campaigning for certain government positions uses tv ads to get their picture out there, to show or at least say what they are supposedly going to do and how other campaigners are the wrong choice. Also different groups can use advertisement to get their perspective out to the public on certain issues such as having tv commercials talk about how illegal immigration or animal violence is inhumane and they could show vulgar sad pictures to show the worst possible outcomes to different issues to make the audience feel sorry.

Song Lyrics

     First off, I was planning on using this genre for my MGP so this blog will kind of let me get a first shot at it so i can work on it from there. So my research question is pretty vague on what it asks because its abstract, but to sum it up I want to know the different perspectives on political issues pretty much but in my paper I'll also go into who have certain perspectives.
     So song lyrics can easily relate to political issues, an example for political issues being brought out in songs would be Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones. It brings up the vietnam war and other conflicts at the time. Oh, a storm is threat'ning

My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away

It talks about how violent the world was at the time, how not only the vietnam war aws going on, but here at home at the U.S. there aws different racial conflicts and violence acts happening. So you can see that with the right use of words you can sing about political issues in an abstract way. And if it's catchy a lot of other people could end up listening to it also.

Annotation on Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk

     This essay gives a lot of different examples on what a genre really is, it goes into explicit detail on genres. The main point of this essay is simple: She wants to show the reader how knowledge of genres goes far beyond a simple discussion of types. "My purposes are to expand your definition of genre (or to introduce you to a definition for the first time) and to help you start thinking about how genres might apply to your own writing endeavors. But above all, I hope to give you an awareness of how genres function by taking what is often quite theoretical in the field of rhetoric and composition and making it a bit more tangible." (250) And she does all this, she also talks about how she had to do research on how essays are suppose to be written when they are pointed towards students reading them. How the writer is suppose to seem more as a coach then a authority figure, because everyone knows that students ("younger" ones) relate better to people talking to them when that person is informing them by not speaking down to them, but instead by being at the same level and encouraging them.
     Kerry Dirk uses a lot of different quotes for references, and they are from credible sources such as, Mary Jo Reiff, a professor who studies rhetoric and composition, Anne Freadman, a specialist in genre theory, Amy Devitt, a professor who specializes in the study of genre theory, Carolyn Miller, a leading professor in the field of technical communication.
     "In other words, knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals, whether that goal be getting a job by knowing how to write a stellar resume, winning a person's heart by writing a romantic love letter, or getting into college by writing an effective personal statement." (253) this paragraph from this essay is one of the many great description on how knowing what a genre is used for and utilizing it for what its worth can benefit anyone. Kelly Dirk points out that people participate in many different genres daily. For example, telling a joke or uploading a witty status on Facebook. She points out that all genres matter because they shape our everyday lives. "And by studying the genres that we find familiar, we can start to see how specific choices that writers make result in specific actions on the part of readers; it only follows that our own writer must too be purposefully written" (254) this quote goes back to my utilizing a genre for what its worth can be beneficial.
     She gives some rules that tell writers exactly what to do and not to do while writing to relate rules there are with genres. Similarities within genres help us to communicate successfully, knowing what a genre is because you've seen it before and other people use it for the same thing kind of gives a norm for that genre. Kelly Dirk writes, "Imagine the chaos that would ensue if news broadcasts were done in raps, if all legal briefs were written in couplets, or if your teacher handed you a syllabus and told you that it must first be decoded." those situations happen differently and almost the same way every time because the similarity makes it simpler to read. "In language, too much variation results eventually in lack of meaning: mutual unintelligibility" (Devitt, "Genre" 53) a very help full quote she uses.
     I believe she does a great job with informing others how to use and what are genres. She gives many examples and has great references. She backs up her statements with many credible quotes and she depicts other quotes or parts of articles to give even more in depth information on genres.

Research log 5

Griswold, Daniel. "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States." CATO Institute. Web. 15 Oct. 2002


In the first paragraph the auther gives some statistics such as that there are an estimated eight million or more people that live in the United States without legal documents, and that number is growing by an estimated 250,000 a year. This was also in 2002, think how high those numbers could be now, and unless some of the United States Illegal Immigration policies have worked, that number as probably increased to close to twenty million plus would be my guess. Some key claims of the author is that the demand for low-skill laborers have increased and because there is no legal way for immigrants to come into the United States to fill that gap, the number of illegal immigrants has gone up. So if there was a way to prevent illegal immigration but at the same time allow more immigrants in that meet certain standards, we should do it.

“Legalizing Mexican migration would, in one stroke, bring a huge underground market into the open. It would allow American producers in important sectors of our economy to hire the workers they need to grow. It would raise wages and working conditions for millions of low-skilled workers and spur investment in human capital. It would free resources and personnel for the war on terrorism.” This comment from the article to me is a big skeptical idea. Legalizing Mexican migration would do these things, but it also would throw off the population of the United States, make it harder for Americans to get job, It would create more cultural diversity but at the same time, what makes some one think that if you bring a huge underground market into the open, that those criminals will stop what they are doing. If anything they will find other, worse ways to do it. We have ways to stop the underground market at this time, maybe not proficiently, but if we could do it proficiently we wouldn’t have that problem.

There will always be pro’s and con’s to the different ideas on Illegal Immigration, if there weren’t any con’s to an idea then we would probably be using that policy at the moment. I just enjoy bouncing off different ideas and gaining more perspectives on this issue. I stay strong to my beliefs and opinions, and I believe everyone else is entitled to theirs, but taking in these different ideas will only help me persuade others to agree on my ideas.

I’ll go from here and start working on my annotated bibliography sense I have all my five research logs finished. I’ve never done an annotated bibliography before so this should be pretty interesting. But I believe I have enough research and information on my issue and that I am ready for this project.

Research Log 4

"Backfire at the Border: Why Enforcement without Legalization | Douglas S. Massey | Cato Institute: Trade Policy Analysis." The Cato Institute. Web. 14 Oct. 2011.

The author’s purpose of this piece is to bring to the reader’s attention that an enforcement only policy to stop illegal immigration isn’t going to work, and that is true in my opinion. Some other claims the author makes is that the cost to U.S. taxpayers of making one arrest along the border increased from $300 in 1992 to $1,700 in 2002, an increase of 467 percent in just a decade. Which if that is true, that is a huuuge increase and something needs to be done about it. Because there are less arrests and more deaths, it’s costing taxpayers more because they have to pay the law enforcement that are protecting our borders. So if we were able to come up with another policy other than enforcement, that would greatly help tax payers and help illegal immigration prevention.
Some great key concepts that Mr. Massey discus’s is “Congress should build on President Bush's immigration initiative to enact a temporary visa program that would allow workers from Canada, Mexico, and other countries to work in the United States without restriction for a certain limited time. Undocumented workers already in the United States who do not have a criminal record should be given temporary legal status.” And I think this idea is genius, I’m all for getting rid of illegal immigrants, but if that illegal immigrant has no criminal history (other than being in the U.S. illegally of course) they should give him a temporary legal status, maybe not amnesty, but a temperate citizenship granted to work for a certain amount of time then go home. If they want to comeback then they could come back legally and go through the process like they should. This idea is a more peaceful way to slow down illegal immigration and I believe it would work because instead of taking illegal immigration on with just force, a peaceful and helpful or beneficial for the illegal immigrant policy would probably work.
I reacted to this claim positively and if it was brought to a vote, I would support it and heed others to support it as well.
I chose this source by using google scholar and looking up enforcement on illegal immigration, and after scrolling down and reading other articles I chose this one because one it wasn’t a 35 page pdf and that it was clear and to the point. Also because of its percpective on illegal immigration perspective. It wasn’t just against preventing it, or for enforcing prevention as strictly as possible, it was a clear minded view on it. I want to know if there are any laws like the author talks about out there yet, or if there are some in the process in the making. I could go from here and get another article on against preventing it because I only have one or two articles on it at the moment. I want to get as many perspectives on Illegal Immigration as possible, I still hold my opinion on getting rid of illegal immigrants as fast as possible, and if that means granting more visa’s to immigrants from Canada, Mexico, and other country’s temporarily then I’m all for it.