TOW 30

I’m going to start off with a bombshell.  APELC is not actually that difficult.  In terms of actual amount of work, there is just as much as any other English class.  Over the course of the year we only wrote two out of class essays.  We also read a handful of difficult passages.  Other than that the only legitimate work we had was the tons of in class essays that we wrote.  The thing is that we did benefit from this because this it was a good proxy for the AP exam. Even though the actual workload may not be that heavy the actual grading is very strict.  This may seem like a pain when you get your grades back but it is beneficial in the end.  This is because, after Mr. Yost’s grading, the grading on the AP exam seems very lenient.   Over the course of the year it only benefits you to put in the extra work.  To be honest I did not put too much effort into my TOWs but I somewhat regret it.  I suggest that you actually try for your TOWs and write them in the style of a timed essay.  If you do that you will actually gain something out of the work you do and it will be helpful.  If not than there is no gain from it.  I would also say to put in a maximum amount of work in the beginning.  The first marking period is a make or break time.  It is when Mr. Yost grades the hardest, and it is also when you pretty much lock in your grade.  It is not to hard to come back from a single letter grade drop, but if you drop the ball in the first marking period it makes it almost impossible to get an A, and can even make it a challenge to get a B.  The last thing that I want to say is that Mr. Yost is a reasonable guy.  If you have a problem or need something go talk to him because he is willing to bend a bit and help you out so at least go and talk to him.

TOW 29

The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? was an piece about why the electric car did not thrive after one of its initial pushes into the market in California in the ‘90s.  I can say that I agree with many of its assertions in the fact that they were many of the important reasons, but I feel like it would have been much easier to present.  The documentary was long, well over an hour, and said little more then I can explain in the next three sentences.  The people who killed the electric car were the direct producers of the car because they did not see it as profitable as a gasoline-powered car.  This profitability laid not in the actual demand, which would have likely been similar to gasoline powered cars, but in all of the after market products from engine parts to maintenance to even the gas to power it.  With all of this money as stake not many companies who are well invested in the way things are are willing to make a change because they will result in losses, and so these companies instead invest in the limiting of change through lobbying and PR.  Essentially what I said in the last three sentences are all that the documentary had to say as a whole to get their point across.  From there I just believe that it was a strongly spirited and emotionally tied team making this movie and think that they tried to make this show.  I believe that this documentary could have easily been slipped into 30 minutes but in an attempt to make their rhetoric more convincing and their back story more full the crew added a lot of essentially unnecessary fluff, which may have made the piece better, but detracted from the abruptness in attaining their initial point.

TOW 28 Who Killed the Electric Car

Who Killed the Electric Car is a documentary by Chris Paine about the disappearance of the electric car from the American marketplace.  The film references a time, in the ‘90s, mainly in California, where electric cars started to be sold.  Although this technology may seem advanced even now, the film claims that it was a viable technology in the 20^th century and that, if not for some suspects, it could have truly thrived.  This film documents the failures of some parties and the sabotage of others over the years on EV model cars.  The film is meant to be a way to create awareness for the ability of the electric car while at the same time criticizing those who limited its advances.  It does this mainly through the use of expert and first hand point of views along with the dehumanization of the other side to prompt a similar reaction by their audience.

            One of the main contributors to the author’s perspective is that of others.  The filmmakers picked many likeminded and expert speakers on the topic and used them to influence viewers.  Through these people, many of whom drove or had some direct involvement with electric cars, Paine tries to paint the picture that the electric car was a commonly beloved piece of technology and that there was great support for it.  He tries to stir his audience and get their emotional response to side with these electric car sympathizers, and to rally them against those against the electric car.  Paine also varies his speakers using celebrities, government personnel and even simply average people.  This allows for a more diverse appeal.  This means that he can hit his audience from many different angles.  From the lenses of the driver to the legislator to the scientist to the celebrity the viewer gets everyone’s point of view and everyone seems to be in favor of the electric car.  The only people who seem not to be represented are those from the car and oil companies.

            One strategy that the director uses to dehumanize the companies is essentially a form of metonymy.  Instead of directly referencing people or having people as those being condemned in the death of the electric car the filmmakers tactically blame people larger organizations such as GM and the US government.  This pawns off the blame and nullifies the human feel and the sympathy that more specific blame may have garnered.  This allows makes it harder for the audience to see these bodies as something that could have had a positive intent because they are not portrayed like the sympathizers as people with feelings and opinions, but as money hungry companies that do not care what they do unless it turns a profit. 

            In all the human aspect plays a large role in this film.  The majority of the film is drawn from the testimonials of people who have direct relations to the topic, and what isn’t is mainly the narration of synthesis of what those first hand accounts are saying.  As a drastically different take as compared to the portrayal of the opposing side, the human aspect of the electric car is a much more openly absorbed idea than that of the dehumanized picture of the murderer of the electric car.

TOW 27

For the first two marking periods my TOWs were subpar.  I think this is due to the fact that I would simply write them to get them done and not for the purpose of practicing them.  At first I tried to follow the guidelines that you handed out.  I would write a TOW while going down the list checking off what I did.  Then, when I started to realize you were not as thorough with your checking of our TOWs my work started to sag even more.  I tried to write posts which barely covered the word restrictions and had little skill involved.  I just threw as many words on the page as possible and had little point behind them.  Since the third marking period however I have improved.  The threat of having one pulled and looked at made me actually try lest one of my poor attempts be pulled.  Also, at that point I realized what you wanted.  I realized that you wanted an actual mini essay and I tried to do that.  Since we did fairly little TOWs after that point I did not really grow.  Doing TOWs did help me master the ability of finding a rhetorical device from nothing, but there are still many areas where I am lacking.  I still barely know the rhetorical devices and my essays are often formulaic.  To be honest I really did not benefit from these assignments but that is not from the assignments but from my personal work ethic.  I think though it may be beneficial to students to make them due less often and to actually grade them more.  This would make them seem like less of a tedious task to just get done and more of an actual task to get better.  Also the threat of grading some of them may spur more students to put in the work to get a good grade.

TOW 27

One of the most famous paintings of all time might have gotten even better. Turns out, according to an article by the Daily Mail, the Mona Lisa may have been Da Vinci’s try at 3-D art.  The Mona Lisa has a much less known cousin housed in a Spanish museum.  In fact an article by Kieran Corcoran and Sophie Jane Evans tells the details of how Da Vinci may have gone so far as to have hid in technology that would not be invented for many centuries under everyone’s noses.  In their article Corcoran and Evans uses some specific techniques to get their points across.  One of the stronger was the ethos they tried to convey.  There were a couple of tactics that went into this objective.  The first of which was the usage of quotes.  Throughout their article Evans and Corcoran sprinkle in many small quotes as a way of making them sound more official and knowledgeable while at the same time cutting straight to the chase.  These quotes offer up many positives, from the fact that it leads them in the right direction with their articles to the fact that it offers a little separation between them and the opinion.  A second technique, which they used, which was helpful was the assistance of pictures.  The writers added in some pictures of both paintings along with some diagrams.  The pictures helped to emphasize the ideas that they were promoting, the fat that the pictures made each other look deeper and more 3-D like.  Also the writers used diagrams with legos.  This helped for the audience’s understanding but lowered the ethos of the story.  With all of those specialized techniques combined it is easy to understand what the article is trying to explain.  The Mona Lisa may have been an attempt at 3-D but even if not it’s still the Mona Lisa

TOW 26

The King Can No Longer Afford Queens is an article about the rapidly changing real estate market in queens.  This article comments on how Queens has gone from a working class, predominantly white area, to a pricey land of the rich, and the article uses pop culture references and numbers to help convince their readers of this idea.  This article uses references from such shows as The King of Queens to show the type of stature queens has previously carried.  The King of Queens is a show less than a decade from its finale about a working class American family who lives in queens.  This is synonymous with Queens’s public image and plays off of it for the story line.  This also reflects the fact that not only was this idea true but it was so commonly thought that it would be the perfect background for this story.  Not only did this show flow with the profile of Queens, but it also strengthened it.  With a viewership of about 9 million weekly viewers it likely changed opinions and people who knew nothing about Queens believed it was just like the show.  The author needed more to show the change so they started to pull out statistics.  The author, Ginia Bellafante started to pick out figures for real estate sold in Queens.  Massive numbers in the multimillion categories started to come out and the image of Queens started to change in the readers mind.  This addition of statistics did something that little telling could, it showed the reader that Queens real estate really was getting expensive.  Further, these numbers help to convince readers because they give specific facts and the readers can judge for themselves how high end they think Queens is.  With a little extra prodding, Bellafante pushes the reader in her direction by comparing Queens to other high-end areas.  All of these techniques help in the end to illustrate the change in the real estate market in Queens.

TOW 25

One of the longest lasting ad campaigns is the Dos Equis most interesting man campaign.  These commercials contain an older man, who is identical the punchline of the commercials' jokes.  A lot of the jokes are similar to Chuck Norris or The Stig jokes.  These jokes are often things that are ironic and masculine at the same time and try to make the "most interesting man" a figure wanted to be replicated. After this they use his classic catchphrase "I don't normally drink beer but when I do I drink dos equis," as a way of bolstering the companies appearence.  These commercials utilize a couple of strategies to effectively get their point across.  The first if these is humor.  The commercials issually start with a joke something like "He once had an awkward moment just to see how it feels."  These jokes do two things. First off they're interesting to the watcher and keep them engaged and entertained.  This means that they get their point across better and also keep the watcher thinking about their product.  Second off this increases the ethos of the worlds mos interesting man by making him sound more manly and more like the type of person men (the main drinkers of beer) would like to mimick.  The commercial tries to target a highly male audience yo make them feel as if manly people are drinking dos Equis and hope that they will take the Jim and believe that drinking dos Equis would make them seem and feel more masquline.  That connection is used because of the strength of male pride.  Men like to feel manly and beer and manliness oh hand in hand, so making beer seem manly would be an effective tactic, which it has proven to e as dos dos equis's sales have risen even when most beer companies have fell.