Unit 3 Proposal

For our Unit 3 project Tracy, Allie, and I have decided to discuss the issue of TCU going to the National Championship. All of our articles/evidence will be in support of TCU going to the championship game.


We are going to use 4 different mediums to appeal to different audiences on this subject. I am working on an ESPN article that will appeal to, obviously, all of the sports fans around the world. Lots of people are constantly getting updates on their phones/emails through the ESPN website, which means they're always checking it. It will be a good way to get this argument out to that population.


Tracy is working on a letter to the BCS selection committee. This letter will be talking to the 'higher end' people in the BCS selection process. Hopefully persuading them to consider TCU as a viable candidate. This audience is narrow, but it's still very important to make sure that these important people know how much everyone believes TCU is deserving of a spot in the championship game.


Allie will be working on both a Fan page on Facebook, and a billboard. The Fan page("Support TCUs Drive to the National Championship") is going to be a good way to get the word out to the younger population. Almost everyone ages 25 and under have a Facebook, and if we invite as many friends as possible to this page, it will get noticed. Also, obviously all of our TCU friends will be in support of this, and it will hopefully get them rallied to expanding this argument out. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join this group! The billboard is also something important she is working on. We haven't decided on our favorite picture yet, but we're just going to have a huge(legit) picture from a TCU game, and one or two words on it that will make a statement. Obviously, it has to be short enough so people driving by will be able to get the main idea of the visual. This is a powerful way to appeal to the Fort Worth/Dallas community in support of one of our home teams going to the National Championship.


Overall, things are going great so far, and we're all really excited to keep expanding on this project.

In Class: visual argument reading

The reading for this class period dealt with how visual images make different arguments. The reading covered everything from wording to coloring to emotional appeals created through visuals. Since I am dealing with more of the textual parts of the third assignment, I focused on the visual elements that text deals with. The visual appearance of text plays an important role and sends many messages for what the style of a visual may be. Certain fonts (serif vs. sans serif vs. decorative) all play a role in the message that an author may want to portray. For this project, one of the tasks that I will be doing is creating an article that is similar to one found in ESPN. This article will be formatted using either a serif or sans serif font (likely Times New Roman). For this article, the visuals that I may choose to incorporate will need to be relevant to the context, and I will attempt to elicit emotional response from the hypothetical reader. This I will accomplish through the use of pictures that show TCU doing well, or through pictures that may show reactions of fans (hopefully creating an effect that other events have been able to show through the use of bystanders).

In Class: What I Learned in the reading

For the reading today, one of the topics I learned is how the structure of words is much more important that I thought in forming arguments. With individual wording, it is important to avoid jargon and technical terms when writing to large audiences, because it has the potential to deter some of that audience who are unaware of the meaning of those terms. Sentence structure also plays a key role in conveying the meaning of an argument, especially when it comes to length of sentences. Often times powerful arguments start with topic sentences that can be brief and are followed with phrases such as "in fact" or "in addition" to add more inflection into the argument. In addition to wording, style is an important aspect of any argument. In order for a strong argument to be written, it must be done in a style that will be appealing to the audience as a whole. In some cases it is inappropriate to employ one style while at other times it may be a necessity to use that same style.

Unit 3 Job Titles and Descriptions

Job Title and Description: My title in the group is Lead Analyst. In addition to being the Recorder, as Lead Analyst I will do extensive research on my group's topic, brainstorm possible ideas for each of the three texts to utilize for the project, plan meetings ahead of time (as well as elaborate on action items for the next meeting), formulate edit any written text, and assist Tracy and Allie in anything they need help with or do not understand. In the group, I want to be active and helpful in every way possible. I will accomplish any task that is delegated to me, and I will put forth my best work. My primary responsibility is to ensure that all research on our topic is done ahead of time as well as to serve as a resource for Tracy and Allie if they are confused or unsure of where we are going as a group on this project.

Other team members: Tracy Littlefield and Allie Barnes

In Class: Group Work

Last year in my Business Information Systems class, I was placed in a group with members who did not have the same work ethic as I did, which ended up in me doing most of the work for the overall project. Due to the high volume of the work, I was overwhelmed and ended up getting a mid-B on the project despite giving all the effort I possibly had.

An ideal group project for me starts off with being in a group with a similar work ethic that I possess. I want to be with members who do not settle for mediocrity and only want to submit their best work possible. I think it is also important to be with members who pay strict attention to detail and are engaged in the task at hand. Additionally, it is important to me for everyone in the group to participate and be held accountable for their work. It is not fair when the group as a whole receives the same grade when there are others who clearly worked harder than the other members. It always bothers me when members of the group are unprepared for class and meetings (or show up late), so preparation and punctuality are critical for a successful project.

In Class: Analysis Challenges

During this process the biggest challenge for me was avoiding giving my own insight and opinions into the primary source analysis itself. The BCS national championship is an issue that I am passionate about and directly affects all of us at TCU, and leaving my own thoughts about the championship/system out of my analysis led me to see the arguments in a much different way. In addition, this process made me view arguments and rhetoric in a completely different way. This challenged me to view the articles from an unbiased perspective and to see how effective and strong each individual argument was. Although none of the articles that I found were in favor of the current system, the articles I read and analyzed each presented differing viewpoints and they subsequently gave me new insight and more reasons as to why I feel the way I do about the flawed BCS system. There would be times while writing where I would catch myself expressing my opinion, but by the time I got through with the third analysis, I was becoming more efficient and not catching myself in that position.

Unit 2 Proposal

Proposed topic: For this essay, I am planning to analyze the arguments surrounding the current BCS system in college football, specifically in the end of the 2009 season when both TCU and Boise State went undefeated. This is a debate that has been highly intensified over the past few years as many non-automatic qualifying schools (non-AQ's) are now finishing with better records than automatic qualifying ones yet not receiving the same recognition and bowl berths or a chance at the national championship. Due to the system of the BCS, there are no playoffs, which does not allow non-AQ's the chance to prove themselves in the post-season of college football and earn a spot in the national championship.

Primary sources: There are many opponents and proponents of the BCS system, which should provide me with enough primary sources to analyze the rhetorical arguments they make. The end of last season was pretty controversial as there were five teams that went undefeated (three were AQs, the other two were Boise State and TCU) but only two got to play for the national championship. Many of the commentators of this subject are sports analysts, so I will mostly look into articles written by correspondents of ESPN as well as local papers in regards to schools that this directly affects. I will also look into what different Athletic Directors and Chancellors of universities are arguing about the issue, because this is directly related to money that schools could be potentially receiving to due to bowl success and invitations.

Why I chose this topic: Being a student at TCU, this is an event that directly relates to me. Once again, we may finish the season in good standing but held out of potentially the national championship, even if we may be deserving of it. It will be interesting to analyze the different arguments that proponents and opponents of the current BCS system are making, as well as to see which side presents the strongest and most effective arguments.