Group Rhetorical

For this final project our group will be using visual aids to argue that Living Learning Communities are not as great as everyone is making them out to be. Our group plans on using rhetorical strategies within our project because we are discussing Living Learning Communities and they are very relevant to our audience which is the TCU student community. We will be utilizing the tool of pathos because this should be a relevant topic to TCU students, and we will be using humor to get our points across.

Unit 4- Group Work

I am usually not a fan of group work.. but when I do I am usually good at doing the work before the presentation. I am usually good at creating an idea or getting most of the material together and having it ready for someone to present. I usually hate getting up in front of people and being the presenter, so I would prefer someone else to do that.. but I guess I would be willing to if nobody else wanted to. I am basically pretty easy going when it comes to working in groups and will do pretty much any task that I am given, despite the fact that I usually don't like working in them. I would prefer not to be the primary presenter, but I would be willing to do so if I had to....

Author's Note- Portfolio 3

I am happy to have finished portfolio 3 as I found this one to be different from the previous two. I do believe that I made my topics connect from the Letter to the Editor, Op-ed and to the Humor Argument. I found this one to be difficult because I had to have the same topic for each of the three aspects of the portfolio. When I chose my topic for the Letter to the Editor the idea of Luke McCown being replaced by Jay Cutler was a possibility while it was not when I wrote the Op-ed because he had been signed by the Chicago Bears in between the two pieces. This made my Op-ed a little more difficult because my main argument was going to be that the Bucs should keep trying to acquire him, however this was now impossible because a different team signed him. Therefore, I had to take my Op-ed in a different direction than I originally intended. As For the humorous argument, I found this one to be the most difficult because I did not really know how to make this issue into something humorous.I feel that the final result is a bit silly, but the feedback I got from it makes me believe that it is ok, despite the fact that most people did not really understand it because they were not part of my target audience.

My topic, since everything surrounding it seemed to change everyday, was difficult to create three things on over the span of the month and I am glad to have finished it. However, after the draft this weekend my argument was realized when the Bucs ended up drafting Josh Freeman with the 17th overall pick of the 2009 NFL Draft. They traded up two spots to make sure that Denver did not steal him away, just as I predicted. So therefore I feel that my arguments were valid! Overall,I found this to be an interesting portfolio, and I am glad to finally be done!

4/22 Author's Note

After meeting with my group, my revisions to my humorous argument have made the collage a little better. I was instructed by them to adjust certain aspects to make the images more cohesive. I am still photo-shop illiterate so I will have to work on that in order to make the final draft look the best. My group ensured me that my argument is funny, however I really do not think that it is because I am usually not very good at being funny.. I think they just thought the kitten in the collage was humorous, but not the rest of it. Since my audience for the collage would be people who are fans of the Buccaneers and football, I did not really expect Kristen and Ellie to understand it, but they were supportive nonetheless. As for today, I hope to get more feedback from the class about what I should do to the collage to make it better. I think overall it has improved from the original idea that I started with!!

Humor Argument 4/20

For my humor argument I tried to make a funny photo-shopped picture of Luke McCown with a baby face being sacked by Julius Peppers. I am not artistic so I decided not to draw a picture, rather I tried to collage images together that I found on the internet. I am not very good at this type of stuff and it looks ridiculous... I have been extremely frustrated when trying to paste all of the images together because I cannot get them to blend correctly. The way I have it now looks pretty lousy, but I think that for the future I cut and paste them together by hand and then scan them onto the computer to make it look better. I think that the argument is pretty stupid, so I plan on using my feedback to create something a little bit more humorous and powerful.

Humor Argument

The closest thing I could find related to my topic was cartoon regarding the Miami Dolphins and their quarterback dilemma two years ago. I found the cartoon, located atwww.heraldextra.com/gallery/main.php%3Fg2_view%3Dcore, to be quite amusing as it featured John Beck who was to be the starting Quarterback of the Dolphins. Within the cartoon, it showed Beck on the edge of the dock saying, "Yes I get to start for the Dolphins" as his feet are in the middle of a block of concrete. His coach next two him replies to his statement by saying, "Or sleep with the fishes as we like to call it." I found this to be really funny as John Beck ended up starting for the Dolphins during that season and they were absolutely terrible going 1-15. John Beck was there draft pick that year and he ended up becoming the starter because their original starter, Trent Green, was awful and the second backup Cleo Lemmon was just as bad.I thought that this is related to my topic as I think the Buccaneers have a chance to be just as bad as the 2007 Dolphins if they rely on Luke McCown to be their Quarterback. John Beck in this cartoon is going to be the Josh Freeman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers if the Bucs are able to draft him in this coming draft. I am not quite sure if this works for my humorous argument, but it is the best that I have found so far!

Draft 1

After reading several Op-eds about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their current starting QB controversy, I realized that the tones are often heated because everyone has such strong opinions on the issue. When it comes to sports, especially football, people really get immersed into issues and they always have very strong feelings one way or another regarding them. I fit this description, and that is why I have such strong feelings as to who should be starting at Quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The current question: Is Luke McCown ready to the Bucs’ franchise Quarterback of the future? My answer is a resounding No.
I have worked with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two summers as I was a Training Camp Assistant in 2005 and 2006. I got to witness Luke McCown first hand and I never thought he was going to be the Bucs Quarterback of the future as he never really impressed me in camp. That was a few years ago, but obviously things have not changed because last year was a year that the Bucs struggled at the Quarterback position and Luke McCown was not even a thought. This is clearly evident by the fact that when the Bucs were struggling to find a Quarterback who could win they opted for Brian Griese and Jeff Garcia. Luke threw only three passes all of last year when the Quarterback position was one of controversy and lack of production. How could a guy who threw only three passes all year for a team with two lousy unproductive Quarterback really be the best choice for a team that wants to compete the next year.
For a player who has been with the Bucs’ for five seasons, and has yet to become the starter, there must be a reason for it. The reason as to why he has not become the starter yet is obvious: he is just not that good and that is also why he only threw three passes all year. Yes, there are some advantages to having someone start who has been the backup for a couple years as he knows the system better than anyone else, but this is not necessarily a good reason. It is not a good reason because Luke knows the old system the best. He knows the system that John Gruden implemented for the last seven years, but now there is a new coach in Raheem Morris. This means that there will be a new system. This therefore would be a perfect opportunity for a new player to come in and start fresh because everyone will be learning the new system, and therefore Luke would have little advantage over anybody else.
So who should the Bucs get to start at Quarterback? The Bucs will certainly try to acquire someone as they already tried and failed in obtaining Matt Cassell from New England who ended up in Kansas and Jay Cutler who ended up in Chicago. These attempts were similar to the attempt to get Brett Favre last year from the Packers as he ultimately ended up in New York. These highly publicized attempts to land these free agent giants is a clear indication that the Bucs’ have little to no faith in Luke McCown as the Quarterback of the future. If they are to not make a blockbuster trade before the season starts to acquire a new quarterback, it is clear that they will obtain one through a different means: the 2009 NFL Draft. According to Mel Kiper Jr. who has been the authority on the NFL draft for more than the last decade, the Bucs’ are going to gear up for the future by drafting Josh Freeman with the 19th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Yes, this may enable Luke McCown to start the season at Quarterback, but when he begins to struggle which he most certainly will, Freeman will be waiting in the wings to become the Bucs Quarterback for years to come. Josh Freeman, being a rookie, will most likely sit behind McCown for most of the season, but he will get his opportunities when McCown struggles. He may not necessarily be the answer to the Bucs’ quarterback issue immediately, but he is definitely going to be the long term solution where Luke McCown certainly is not.

Authors Note:

I still am a little nervous that this is too similar to my letter to the editor. This is definitely only the rough draft and I know that I have a lot of things to add and edit. I feel that this may be a little choppy and I need to make it flow together better and get all my arguments organized in a better manner. I think that I have good ideas, but I really just need to make everything come together a little smoother!