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.

In Class: First Paragraph

While walking around the TCU campus, whether it be someone's first or one-thousandth time, one will instantly see the quality of the building on the campus. TCU invests lots of money into its campus, more so than most universities. One building in particular, however, stands out among them all: the TCU recreation center. This is a building on campus that is set apart from all others: it is diverse, unique, state-of-the-art, and appealing to all students on campus.

Upon entering the rec center, there is somewhat of an overwhelming feeling that is induced upon first sight. Walking in from the main entrance, you can immediately see the volume of activity going in the recreation center. There are machines everywhere, a huge weight room, various basketball and racquetball courts, and indoor and outdoor pool, a food shop, all creating endless possibilities of what you can do for the time you decide to be there. As you proceed to get your ID scanned, you decide that you wish to go into the weight room. This is no high school weight room, but a weight room on par with most high-tech facilities comparable to Lifetime Fitness and 24-Hour Fitness'. There are rows upon rows of cable machines, multiple benches, a complete dumbbell set that can easily accommodate 25 people at once, two sections to work abdominal muscles, a complete straight-bar and EZ-bar curling rack, as well as two cable machines to work muscles specifically in the back. This is a weight room where you can work every muscle imaginable in the human body.

In Class: Writing Workshops

Writing workshops are something that I have found both very beneficial and quite pointless depending on the circumstances and classes they occur in. The most beneficial workshops that I have been involved in happened mostly during my junior and senior year of high school in my AP English classes. In these classes, many of the students were on similar levels of thinking and writing ability that I was at, which made for a nice atmosphere to participate in group workshops. This was helpful as I received relevant feedback, interesting insight, as well as good advice for proper revision for various essays throughout the year (my senior AP Lit class was heavy in volume of writing so there were usually workshops weekly or bi-weekly). In other classes in high school, namely non-AP classes, I found that writing workshops were absolutely pointless. Most of the kids who would "revise" my paper either had nothing to say about it at all, or they would give me comments that had nothing to do with my paper and were absolutely irrelevant. In general, I would prefer to revise my own paper and then have my peers who I trust to revise my paper, but I am not totally opposed to group writing workshops. On the whole, this class seems pretty diligent and smart, so I trust that the advice that I receive from my peers would be both relevant and helpful in the long run. +

In Class: Observing the Rec Center

Because I have been in the rec center very frequently, there wasn't too much that I was unaware of, but I did begin to notice more about the little things that TCU does to make this rec center stand apart from other rec centers, both public ones as well as those at other universities across the country. TCU clearly invested millions of dollars in this facility, and each year there seems to be some new addition. Through doing this, it creating a clean, nice, attractive environment that students will naturally feel inclined to go to. Besides the lavish machines, equipment and facilities in the rec center, TCU also uses smaller objects to almost subconsciously attract students. One of the ways that this is achieved is through the promotion of TCU throughout the building. Everywhere you look you can see TCU logos, ads for sporting events, or even news about what's going on at the school. TCU is the one thing that is common among all students here, because this is where our current home is. We are all students together, and this is a place that embodies it. Through this, we are able to recognize this as our rec center that is unique to us. Another thing that the rec center does do to create a more inviting atmosphere is through their promotion of various clubs and intramural sports throughout the semester. One thing that TCU does well is to inspire students to be active in many ways on campus, and one of the first things you see when walking into the rec center is a huge ad for all the fall intramural registration deadlines. The rec center inspires activity, and TCU's main goal through investing so much into it is to get us, as students, to be healthy, fit, and active.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in the Rec

As I have learned through observing and going to the rec center in the past few weeks, I have become increasingly aware of the diverse and multiple purposes that the rec center serves among the TCU community. While looking at ethos, pathos, and logos, it has helped me to better understand the purpose of the rec center itself.

Ethos: As the book describes, ethos involves emotional appeals, which are especially powerful tools for influencing what people think and believe. Ethos strives to establish credibility and character. In specifics to the TCU rec center, I feel that ethos is created through the establishment itself. As in most things and buildings here at TCU, there has clearly been a lot of money invested here. This is without a doubt one of the nicest gyms that I have been to, and I am sure that most people would agree. Because of the quality and the amount of machines, weights, basketball courts, pools, game rooms, class rooms, and other various places inside of the rec center, it suggests that this is a legitimate place where one can go to be fit and healthy.

Pathos: Pathos, as we have learned, is an appeal to emotion. The TCU rec center does an exceptional job of appealing to emotion, and this is where it does its best job of drawing in students. The rec center attempts to draw in the students, and everyone that enters the gym, through creating at atmosphere that will encourage everyone to be active in some way. Through being at the rec center, that first step is accomplished, but while being there, in an almost subconscious way there are elements that push the individual to be fit. One way this is accomplished is through the music. Most people do not notice the music at first, but music played at the rec center is usually upbeat and fast. Studies have shown that people can work out faster and increase their heart rates while being active and listening to music with more beats per minute. Pathos is also created through the main visual argument here, which are the murals throughout the rec center. These murals are of people being active, and struggling, but accomplishing the task they are set to. These inspire people to work hard to achieve a certain goal, whether that may be to move up a weight class, lose a few pounds, or simply to be fit and maintain good health.

Logos: Logos is an appeal to logic. To me, logos is the least dominant of the three rhetorical devices in the rec center, but I feel that it is most evident through basic observation of the rec center, as well as using common sense. This ties in with ethos, but through simply being inside of the rec center, you can tell how many purposes it fulfills, as well as how much money has been put into making this a state-of-the-art facility that is inviting to the whole student body at TCU.

In Class: Logos Artifact

The Logos object that I brought today is a poster of the 2009 TCU Football team, which highlights going undefeated and lists the scores of all of the twelve games played throughout the regular season. Because the poster is large, I used a picture of the same poster that I have on my room from this website: http://store.cstv.com/store_contents.cfm?store_id=422&dept_id=-164&product_id=162677&sportCatID=15.

Logos stresses arguments based on "facts, evidence, and reason." My example stresses facts and evidence. The fact that my poster claims is that not only is TCU the Mountain West Conference Champions for the 2009 football season, but it also states that they went 12-0 to secure a perfect season in regular season play. This establishes the legitimacy of TCU as a football program and a contender for higher recognitions in the realm of college football. To support this fact, the evidence of going 12-0 is shown through the list of all twelve opponents TCU faced and the subsequent score from each of those games. The reading stresses that "people today usually prefer arguments based on facts" when compared to other forms of logical arguments. The quickest way to grab someone's attention, in most cases, is to advertise facts that will stand out. Specifically for this poster, to the person who sees it who is unaware of TCU's success on the football field, this will enlighten them to their success and serve as persuasive enough evidence to back up the claim being made through the poster.