In the segment, Bad Ideas on What Good Writing Is, I chose Patricia Roberts Miller’s reading “Rhetoric is Synonymous with Empty Speech.” Rhetorical speech overcomplicates a sentence, which is a “bad idea.” Many people assume that “the simpler, plainer version of the sentence is not just a stylistic choice, it’s a moral choice,” as she describes. The inclusion of more difficult words distorts the sentence’s context. To them, rhetoric is something that conceals the facts. “Rhetoric is clothing on the thought,” Miller says, quoting an old adage. It’s just a matter of adding a layer of vocabulary to the proposition. This piece appealed to me because I enjoy the use of rhetoric in literature. It’s a beautiful way to dress up a sentence and give it more context, in my opinion. I believe that using rhetoric to catch a reader’s interest when communicating important ideas about the topic at hand is essential. We can’t avoid rhetoric, so we can choose what kind of rhetoric we use, so it should be up to the writer to decide how to use it. She claimed, quoting Aristotle: “What you learn from rhetoric is how to approach political, ethical, and legal problems, how to come up with an argument when you can’t be (or, at least, shouldn’t be) certain that you’re right. You also learn how to assess other people’s arguments “. Instead of equating rhetoric with hollow speech and lies to misrepresent the facts, the aim here was to enable us to investigate the many forms and uses of rhetoric.

 

A bad idea is a decision that  is not sensible and is incorrect. During our lives everyone has made a decision and had to live with that going through with lives but this is not a bad thing having made bad decisions can help us learn and prevent us from making more mistakes in the future. Making bad decision is a part of human nature no one in this world can say that they have never made a bad decision.The author says that “writing in general” is a bad idea because there is actually no such thing as just writing in general. When you write whether it a fan-fiction, horror, science, history, etc  every writer need to be educated about that specific topic and when writing you need to have information about what you are writing on and what the audience of the writing expects. One really good example is from the section “You can Learn to Write in General” by Elizabeth Wardle in page 31 where it talks about how” a student fresh out of college is asked to write a report for the CEO , the student might know what a report is in general but the student has never seen a report from that specific company so she will have trouble writing because she needs examples, some inside info, needs to know about the CEO and also needs to understand what they want in the report”. These are the reasons why thinking you can Write in general is a bad idea.I chose this piece because i used to believe in writing in general and how i had trouble with this idea. When i was in school i used to think i was writing in general but i was completely wrong because it doesn’t exist when writing a report, essay, stories etc you always need some background info and the writer needs to think about its audience. I do not  have a good idea to counter this bad idea but i agree with the author this is not bad news because it gives new writers permission to keep learning, to fail and learn from their past mistakes i think that being open minded might also help when you write.

I choose to read “PLAGIARISM DESERVES TO BE PUNISHED” by Jennifer A. Mott-Smith. She started her article by citing two newspaper headlines about plagiarism in college growth.  She also stated that “Plagiarism, we know, is an immoral act, a simple case of right and wrong, and as such, deserves to be punished.” (page 247). We know that especially when we started college (well that is my case).

Jennifer mentioned three different points about the complication of using sources: One, we often used ideas other ideas in our conversations and we mixed or combined with our own ideas, that it is difficult to identify whose original idea is because it has been repeated many times. Second, writers used other people’s ideas to boost their work, especially when they are learning something new. Third, the process of learning who to cite or give credit to the person varies, it is not the same and most of the time creates confusion. 

Jennifer explained that high school students used books as references in their work but they are not citations. So when they started college that is a new system or world for them, syllabus or field expectation are different from one to another. New students can simply try to do their job, but they are allowed to do mistakes. “While the feeling that plagiarism deserves punishment is perhaps widely held in society, the understanding that plagiarism is often not deceitful and does not deserve punishment is also present.” (pg 250)  

I choose this idea because I know plagiarism is a problem and can lead you to be kit out of college. My daughters’ friend in her first semester was removed from college because she was “cheating” copying someone’s work. Now she needs to go to court. For me, that is really sad.  So I know it is a big deal. When I saw the topic it caught my attention because I thought “What can be wrong with plagiarists equal punishment?” Yet after reading this article, I agreed with Jennifer, we read a lot of articles or we simple used other peoples’ ideas that it becomes so natural and sometimes mingle with our own ideas that we sometimes we don’t know if that was our own or something we acquire from someone else. Yet, my suggestion is always to give the credit or reference that we are using others’ ideas. Be honest to ourselves and others.

THE FIVE-PARAGRAPH ESSAY IS RHETORICALLY SOUND by Quentin Vieregge

Quentin Vieregge points out that the bad idea is to believe that the five-paragraph essay writing method is rhetorically sound. Quentin argues that the five-paragraph essay writing method is grossly overrated by many educators and is overused in middle school and high school. Quentin Vieregge says this is a bad idea because he believes that by using this method, students spend more time trying to stick to rigid guidelines and crafting models than they do create in-depth, independently thought-out papers. In the article, he mentions how the five-paragraph essay writing method has worked for some people and who are being influenced by this method. The article also provides arguments for and against the five-paragraph essay writing method. It states that the arguments given by the proponents of the five-paragraph essay are that it can be used as a guide to provide structure for early writers. Once learned, they claim, it will later serve as a template for experienced writers. Opponents of the five-paragraph essay say that it binds writers to their characters and can even arbitrarily shape their ideas. I chose this article because I was curious as to why the five-paragraph theory was rhetorically sound since I read the title and I was intrigued by it. In my case, I am a proponent of the five-paragraph theory because English is my second language, as Quentin Vierge says in his article, “One such teacher, David Gugin, writes about how the five-paragraph model benefits students learning English as a second language.” I did find it helpful when I first wrote in English because it provided me with guidance on how to start and how to organize my words. So far, I do not have an example of a good idea to counter this bad idea, and I don’t think a good idea is needed because this article does illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the method. The only thing I can think of is that teachers could try using other, less formulated methods of writing in the classroom, one that is less restrictive, or one that is also more widely used in college.

When news broke about the Coronavirus in December of 2019, no one could have imagined the effect it would have on the globe.  Later, when it reached the United States in March of 2020, it felt like an out-of-the-question idea that we would still be in quarantine one year later.  I have been working as a secretary at a funeral home for the last three years, going to school full time while also working full time. Over the past year, I had an indescribable experience, having what I thought was a normal desk job to becoming an essential worker, deputized to make removals from hospitals. 

Before the virus reached the United States, I distinctly remember hearing about its effects on Italy and the video warnings from residents who pleaded with us to take their advice. Many people, including myself, doubted the effects that it would have because it seemed like the flu. My anatomy lab class in early March became the last time I was on campus as it quickly became apparent that this was not the flu and far more deadly than we had prepared for. From March to May, I was still enrolled as a full-time student while working every day for as many as 12 hours to take phone calls and do the necessary paperwork.

 In the beginning of the pandemic, I could see that the amount of work was going to steadily increase, so I made an agreement with my bosses that I would stay at work as long as needed as long as I could complete some of my schoolwork during the work day. There even were instances where we were so busy I was answering the phone at work while taking an exam for class online. The phones rang nonstop, and on the other end was often a sad story about how they had not seen their loved ones for months due to the virus. Hospitals and Nursing Homes were not allowing visitors because of the risk of exposure, keeping elderly patients from seeing their families and pregnant women completely alone in the hospital. At the same time my parents were working in the hospitals as nurses, seeing their coworkers become sick and pass away. Self monitoring for symptoms and sanitizing the house was all we could do to help lessen the chances. My father began sharing his last wishes, discussing what’s to be done with him if the worst was to happen. He has begun seeing his own coworkers become sick and in some cases, even passing away.
There was nothing in life that could have prepared me for such a traumatic event, it seems only in retrospect can I see the toll it took. Experienced professionals who have worked in the funeral industry for over 25 years have said that this virus was worse on the essential workers and the city as a whole than on September 11, 2001. While 9/11 was a horrific event, it was a one-time event, but the Coronavirus was claiming the lives of thousands of people a day. I began seeing coworkers cry at work from the stress and the complaints of insomnia we all seemed to share. While it was not always easy, we had an important job to do. There were glimmers of hope in the chaos that helped to make the times more bearable. There were many instances of food being delivered to us with thank you notes for our hard work. There were also many thankful people, who had previously been turned down by other funeral homes due to a lack of space.

I personally have suffered from anxiety and depression for most of my life, but after a month or so of working in the worst, I began having panic attacks. The death toll from the virus and distress from the families that I was experiencing on a daily basis led to me developing a panic disorder. Instead of allowing the negatives to overcome my life I began making changes to my life. More self care practices and methods for correcting my sleep schedule became fixtures in my routine, as it was important for improvement.

The bad idea being proposed by Christopher justice is using texting as a communicative practice. The author believes this is a bad idea because texting is ruining literacy skills. Many people use graphic, abbreviated, and non-conventional languages in text messages, not exercising literary skills correctly. Christopher states that texting is causing students to write poorly and making them lazy. For example, students text abbreviations such as “OMG” instead of “oh my gosh” and this makes them intellectually lazy people. David Crystal, an author, stated that texting and emailing fogs your brain like cannabis, does not influence literacy skills, and deprived children of sleep. Justice agrees with David’s statements. The author also provides many counterclaims. He states that taxing can encourage people to utilize various modes of communication. Some of these modes of communication can be images, music, weblinks, and photographs. I agree with this because it can further enhance the skill of being able to connect certain topics to their personal life. I chose this piece to see if technology was ruining my literary skills. After reading the article I do realize that technology is affecting my grammar. When I’m doing an essay, I tend to use abbreviations. For example, in the personal essay that we just finished doing, I was tempted to use “omg” or “lol”. Then I realized that it’s informal to use in an essay. Christopher justice continues by stating positive correlations between texting and people’s literacy skills. He states that researchers concluded texting often informal style allows the textures to engage in more creative uses of language. I would disagree with this because the way some people text can be creative but I don’t see how a message being informal can help you in your academics. I believe that texting can help with speech because when you’re texting someone it’s meant to sound like you’re talking to that person. Christopher further explains that we shouldn’t see texting as a way to replace literature but to enhance writing skills. In my opinion, we should encourage students to not use the skills they use when they’re texting if it’s informal. Comparing how you text versus how you write in literature can be useful to see the strengths and weaknesses.

2020 was a a challenging, transformative and a life- changing year. At the beginning of 2020, things were normal. I was born in January, so throughout the whole month, I was looking forward to my birthday and having a good time with friends. My birthday came and passed, and it was great, yet little did I know that would be the last time I would be able to hang out with anyone or at least a huge group for the foreseeable future. The year began great and progressively got worse and worse. I love going out and rarely stay in, so this lockdown that occurred was challenging in more ways than one. Over the course of the coming months, the world was not faring better. We began to see injustice within our own system, granted it had always been there. Still, I felt the fact most Americans now we’re home watching television and news more often because this protest that occurred all over the globe. Everything shut down very abruptly so during this pandemic as I was all the time,  I picked up a hobby that I had previously dropped, ‘Painting.’ There is no better time, I guess, to revisit something you lost when you are forced to stay home. My sister is studying to be a designer, so acquiring the materials to paint was relatively easy and plus having her do it felt really reassuring. I have the best moments of my childhood with my grandfather, where we use to spend a lot of our time painting and grading each others work. It was so calming and a wonderful feeling. It was really a tough time for everyone, but if you see it in a positive side the pandemic has taught us to live life unapologetically, be grateful and count every blessing.