Redesign of Advertisement Reflection

           Going into the Redesign of Advertisement essay assignment, I thought I was going to struggle on writing about the three rhetoric appeals of pathos, ethos, and logos. I learned about the three rhetoric appeals during my high school years but I don't remember how to use any of them. In high school, I written all kinds of papers but I never had to write a paper using the rhetoric appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos.

           After looking at a bunch of advertisements in a Sports Illustrated Magazine, I was able to finally select a Coke Zero advertisement. I decided on the Coke Zero advertisement because it had a football theme to it and it was targeting towards people who enjoys and plays the sport of football. I also decided on the advertisement because I can redesign the whole advertisement and to make the advertisement target towards another audience.
           I came up with my idea for the redesign in my head while I was typing my essay. I stopped and think about the changes that will be made in the new advertisement. I didn't really sketch it out since I just kind of picture it in my mind while I was typing out my essay. I thought about the changes I could make in the new advertisement that will attract the new audience of young women.
           The challenges I face as I began the essay would be how to organize my paper so it flows well when it is being read and I had to figure out the three rhetoric appeals that were being used in my original advertisement and how to apply it into my new redesign advertisement. I overcome these challenges by asking Professor Rinke for help on the rhetoric appeals that I analyzed on my original advertisement. Once I learned how to explain the rhetoric appeals in my original advertisement, I apply it to my new redesign advertisement. I was able to organize my paper by writing an introduction first. Then talk about the original advertisement and the rhetoric appeals to it. Also later I talk about the new redesign advertisement as well as how the rhetoric appeals are being used. Lastly I wrap up my paper with a conclusion to summarize everything I wrote for my paper.
             What I like about writing this redesign advertisement paper was that I could write about how to create my new redesign in any way how I would like it as long as it is related to the Coke Zero product. I also liked about creating a new slogan and featuring a famous person like Michelle Obama to attract the new audience of women.
              I feel like I have a better understanding of the concepts of the rhetoric appeals ethos, pathos, and logos. Now I know how to apply to them in real life and in my writing. Knowing how to use these rhetoric appeals could help me write better for the papers I have to write in the future.
              If I was given a second chance at writing my redesign of advertisement essay, I definitely would've had someone from the writing center to look at it. Since I had 3 classes on that day, I wasn't able to find time in between classes to go to the writing center. By the time I got home it was already too late to e-mail my paper to Professor Rinke to check it out and have feedback on it. Also if I had another chance, I would've definitely found another advertisement that doesn't require me writing in the female perspective.

A Letter to Myself

Dear Sophomore Dennis,

         Basketball has been your most favorite sport ever since you started playing in the 4th grade. You know you loved playing basketball all your life. But why didn't you tryout for the JV basketball team during your sophomore year? You know that if you would've been on the JV team your sophomore year, you would've made the Varsity team in junior year. If you would've made the Varsity team as a junior, you would've had the opportunity to play more on Varsity as a senior.
         First of all, I thought you should've still gone to the optional two weeks of conditioning days set-up by the basketball coaches. You didn't even try to go to any of them and you thought you could take the year off and tryout for Varsity the year after. If you would've went to the conditioning, you could prove to the coaches that it is worthy of selecting you even though you didn't perform well during the summer league games. Each day you improved on, you will be much better conditioned and in shape for the tryout days. You definitely should've gone to conditioning to prepare yourself for basketball tryout.
         Most importantly, you should've still tryout for the basketball team even if you didn't think you would've made the team. If you did tryout and didn't make the team that would've be fine. You didn't want to be emotionally hurt to get cut but till this day you know you still feel very regretful about it. You figured out later that one person quit the team and two people got kicked off the team for having bad grades. You should've worked harder in the classroom and proved to the coaches that you maintain good grades. So when it comes to tryout, you show them your great progress reports, they might consider you a spot on the team regardless of your basketball ability at the time. You should've still tryout with the same mindset that thinking you will make the team.
        You know you made a regretful mistake. You were lazy and you didn't think you could handle the hard AP and honor classes you took sophomore year. You should've work harder both in the classroom and on the basketball court. Even though you did not impress the JV coach in summer league, you should've still tryout and gave yourself a chance to show the coaches what you are capable of. Once the JV coach become the Varsity coach the following year, you knew you should've have tryout anyways even if you didn't think you would've make it. The coaches actually wanted you to be a part of the team but you just didn't play sophomore year so he had to cut you junior year. If you would've practice with the team junior year and then made the team as a senior, you would've been given more time to play.
           They say hard work pays off in the end. Even if you did get cut, you wouldn't have lost anything. A loss is isn't a defeat but not learning from it is. Every day you thought about the decision of not trying out for the basketball team. You know basketball has been your most favorite sport and it all started when you were playing in in the backyard and by the church. You know basketball is the best thing that ever happened to your life. It gave you a chance to bring joy to life and have fun with your friends.

I truly wish I can go back in time to change that decision for you!

Sincerely,
D-LIN from the Future

Literary Narrative Reflection

Dennis Lin

Professor L. Rinke

Composition I

12 October 2012

Process Memo

As I sat down in class to begin writing my literacy timeline, I knew the most logical place for me to begin is my birthplace. I did not have a hard time remembering details since I remember clearly how my life begin in Boston not knowing any English and Chinese was the first language that I begin to interact with my family. It was definitely hard to get everything on my paper since there is so much to life as I’m going through a lot of changes as each year goes on. Something that is interesting I realized about my literacy development while composing my timeline that I had never previously thought of is that while I was attending school in Taiwan, they actually taught me basic English in an optional class that I took when I was in the 3^rd grade. ESL was the main theme throughout my timeline and I focused on the books that I love to read. I decided that ESL was the area to focus on for my narrative since it is a new beginning when I came here and it was the turning point of my life as I begin living as an Asian-American. It was difficult to pick ESL as my only theme since my literacy developed even more during my times in middle school and high school. The experience of creating a timeline tells me that my I been through so much changes and college is a fresh new start to it in order for me to potentially reach the success I want to have in life.

I narrow down my area of focus for my written narrative in my times in the ESL as it is where all my English literacy development all started. It wasn’t that difficult for me to center my thoughts into a clear, straightforward story since I remember most of the things I did in the ESL program that guided me to become a better reader and writer. When I began to write my narrative, I organize it through the memorable things that I did in the ESL class. I wrote most of the things I did in the ESL in a chronological order. It was difficult to organize my thoughts into a draft at first since I did not thought I would find the old pictures that was taken during my ESL time but it turns I did find some pictures that I can write and make a video about. The kind of pre-writing strategy that I use are organizing the things I did in the ESL in the correct order of events and try to find the pictures to it before I start organizing which one happens first and before. After composing my rough draft, the kinds of things I change after the peer review was my grammar and some of the things I wrote to make it in a chronologically order. My partner was helpful as “another set of eyes” since they were able to find grammar mistakes and suggestions that how I could make change to the sequence of the paper. The kind of constructive criticism she gave me was try to focus on the events I did in the ESL and leave out the things I did in middle school and high school. It was very helpful since focusing on the ESL is actually a much better way to write my paper and create my video for it. When I made the final edits to my narrative, I was already thinking about how it was going to turn the story into an Animoto video slideshow since I needed to write about the old ESL pictures that I could still found in my house. This alter the way I would normally write a story because I wrote most of the things I did in the ESL based off of the pictures that I could found and pieced them together so that way I can write better and in a chronological order.

My peer review partner did not actually choose fifteen of my best sentences in my opinion since my partner actually chose the ones that I did not have the real pictures for the Animoto video. I choose some passages for my slideshow but most of them were included in my video. I find it extremely difficult to edit my text down or the 52-character limit per slide because I had to shorten my sentences and I feel like some of them were fragment sentences that I just couldn’t help it but to keep it. My strategy was to keep the original ideas of the sentences I chose and shorten it with another word or use “&” instead of “and” for most of my sentences. I use old images to work as a buffer between my text slides since it is much easier to tell a story that way if there are real pictures of my time in the ESL. They were used as a way to provide more detail because of the 52-character limit text limitations. I choose the images I used because they the pictures that when I was a young child in the ESL and there were pictures of the assignments that I did in the class. Some of the pictures I used were from the web since I couldn’t find the real picture of it and a better way to show it. They help me to tell my story since a picture is worth a thousand words. As the more pictures you see, the more you can experience the literary part of my life. The song I chose helped me to cement a theme in my slideshow because it is a song made by Eminem about the changes that I had to overcome. I chose this song because I have gone through a lot of changes like moving to different location and every change eventually comes down to me becoming the literate person I am today. It helps me to communicate about my literacy since instrumental and hook reminds my viewers that I went through a lot of changes in order to get to the point where I am at today. After going back to my video and watching it again, I feel like I wish I would have done differently on some of the text slides that have typos and some of it could have been reworded so it’s clearer for my viewers to understand. Overall, I thought I created a successful literacy timeline, narrative essay, and Animoto video on how I become the literate reader and writer I am today.

Visual Argument: Car Commercials

             In the Ford F150 commercial, the ideology of dominant hegemonic reading is communicated and reinforced. For example, it tells you the benefits and ways that the truck could help you out. Most of the stuffs shown are positive and advantages that the trucks could bring to its drivers. The Ford Motor Company created this commercial to be effective as it says "It ain't a luxury." as it means most people can afford it without having to be extremely rich and it is designed to be driven by anyone and not just the wealthy people. The intended audience for this visual argument would be anyone working at a labor job and needs great amount of space to carry things inside their pick-up truck or anyone who is interested in buying a truck. The kind of rhetoric that is being used to appeal the audience would be the advantages, benefits, and convenience of owning a Ford F150 truck. My response to the commercial is that we can identify and receive the dominant message of an image or text shown in the commercial in an unquestioning manner. It totally captured the capture the viewer's attention by the use of images and different word fonts. The humor parts of it also really appeal to anyone watching the commercial at that time. I think this is the case for most commercials made today as humors are being used to appeal the audience and makes people remember the funny parts of it after a period of time.

Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade

1. I think my teachers in elementary, middle and high school could have better prepared me for the technology requirements in college by requiring us to do online research more. I would suggest them to make most of our writing be typed on a word document instead of us writing in a journal. Writing in a blog online would be much more interesting and more students will be engaged in learning

2. The kind of technology I anticipate having to use in my chosen career field would be mainly computers, promethean boards and the cashier machine. Yes I think my schooling here at Oakland University will prepare me for that because in order to be successful in the business, I need to learn how to use computer and conduct lots of research. The programs I will mainly be dealing with are Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. 

3. I feel that I write better in a more relaxed setting like a blog because writing on a blog is like keeping a journal online and I can look back into it after a long period of time. I think writing in an e-mail isn’t really for me since I only use e-mails if I ever need to check announcements, news and if I need to e-mail my professors or send a private letter to my friends/family. But someday when I have a career, I will have to use e-mail quite frequently to communicate with others such as my boss, manager, associates, or colleagues in the business world.

4. If I was a teacher in English, I would better prepare the future generations for these high-tech jobs by letting them engage in computer at an early stage such as knowing how to type efficiently by end of elementary or at least sometime by during middle school. Also knowing how to conduct research, using Microsoft office programs and most importantly knowing how computers works. 

5. I agree with the main thesis because students should be well prepared before they enroll into college. Most schools should offer computers and other type of technology for students to use and teaching them how to use it. Almost all of the jobs in the present day require some knowledge of technology. In order for students to be successful in college and their career, they should be exposed and be engaged in technology at an early age since as the year goes on new technologies are being developed and invented.

Literacy Timeline

• September 8th, 1993 - Born in Boston, Massachusetts. First words were mom and dad in Chinese.
• 1996-2003 - Lived in Taiwan - Learning Chinese in elementary school and speaking Taiwanese at home.
• 2003-2004 - Arrived in the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and started as a ESL (English Second Language) student in the 4th grade. Did my first book report on Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire.
• 2005 - First year starting as a regular student. Earned a shirt call "Accelerated Reader" for reading the most books in my class.
• 2006-2008 - Middle school. I learned about what a bibliography is, how to do research and did my research on Michael Jordan.
• 2008-2009 - Freshmen in high school. Enrolled as honor English student. I remember my very first book was "To Kill a Mockingbird"
• 2009-2010 - Wrote my first 10+ pages long of research paper. Had lots of vocabulary quizzes all year long.
• 2010-2011 - Enrolled in American Literature. Learned about Annotated Bibliography and read "The Great Gatsby" and "Of Mice & Men"
• 2011-2012 - Writing through film class. Watched a lot of type of films like "The Godfather" and "Gladiators". Then write movie reviews, analysis, and critiques about it.
• 2012-Present - High School Graduation. Attending college now and planning on majoring in Business.

“Mother Tongue” Summary & Response

             Amy Tan was born in the United States and her parents were immigrant parents from China.  The story tells that she failed her mother's expectations that she become a doctor or concert pianist. She is a writer that is fascinated by English language of her daily life.  Amy can understood her mother but she had a very heavy Chinese accent that others could not understand her clearly. Amy reveals that she was embarrassed by her mother's use of broken English from time to time. When she finally got to college, she decided to be a English major instead other typical Asian students who usually are enrolled as engineering or other math-related majors. She discussed about the Chinese culture how most of them succeed in math since there is only one answer to most of everything but not in English since things are harder to understand and writing can be done in a lot of ways. In 1985, she finally began to write fiction and other various books. She wrote using what she thought to be crafted sentences and sentences that would finally prove that she had mastery over the English language.

            My development as a literate is linked with my cultural identity just as Amy Tan's. Similar to her I was born in America with immigrant parents from Taiwan. In Taiwan, we learn Chinese in school yet our own parents speak another native language known as Taiwanese at home. I grew up in Taiwan until I was in the 4th grade so I'm capable of understand both Chinese and Taiwanese.  When I arrived in America, I was an ESL (English Second Language) student in the 4th grade and I had some struggles as a reader and writer at first but I quickly learned the English by the next school year  Both Amy Tan and my parents have high expectations of me eventually becoming doctors or lawyers, but I ultimately ended up choosing to become a business major in college. Like her and my parents, they cannot speak very well English and sometimes it is hard for them to communicate with other people out there so I have to help them along the way. At home, I speak Chinese or Taiwanese to them most of the time as they are still not fluent in English at all. Being a trilingual Asian-American student, I can totally relate Amy Tan's story and her identity in the Chinese culture.