Rhetorical Strategies, Group Project

We are planning on appealing to the pathos of our audience with our tag line of "hook up." This plays on the emotions of college students because there are things that college students associate with this phrase. We are not referring to that with our use of the phrase but it is a way of drawing in an audience and creating interest in our issue. The website will have links to all of the organizations that we think would be good places to volunteer, which is an argument of logos. We will be including organizations that we are involved in, establishing ethos.

Group roles

In a group I prefer to complete tasks, no matter how minute and make sure that things are finished. I am not as much of an ideas person as I am a "doer." I prefer to be told what needs to be done, do it and let the other group members do the creative thinking and actual presentation. I am good at delegating tasks and organizing people as well. I can separate tasks and make sure that everyone does their part and has an equal amount of work to do. I don't mind presenting but I would prefer to not be responsible for creating the presentation and thinking of the best means of presentation. If I have been given time to practice the presentation and know what needs to be said, I am capable of presenting.

Editorial Arguments Portfolio, Author's Note

This portfolio focuses on the greater issue of academic misconduct among university professors, and on the specific issue of the recent firing of professor Ward Churchill from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Each piece is geared for the newspaper reaching Denver and Boulder, The Denver Post. All three of the pieces that I have submitted express my opinion that students and administrators should be cautious in accepting the word of their professors and employees as truth. I believe there should be more strict standards for professors and a zero-tolerance policy for academic misconduct within the professorial community. I establish ethos in this portfolio by using personal experience as a college student. The stories that I use are also used to appeal to the pathos of readers. The logos comes from research of university policies and local newspaper articles. The assignments themselves have been posted on eCollege in the doc sharing section, selected to be shared with the professor only and the other assignments are located on this blog. I will be turning in the humorous piece for this portfolio separately, as it is a cartoon and is not in an electronic format. All that said, my portfolio includes three separate pieces: a letter to the editor, an op-ed piece, and a humorous piece, all of which revolve around the same topic.

Holly Buechner

Humorous Piece Author's Note

First of all, please excuse my lack of artistic ability. I hope this comic makes sense. There are some aspects that are pretty specific to the situation itself, but there are also some themes that work with the larger issue of dishonesty in academic communities. I'm open to any suggestions on how to make it funnier or more effective. Thanks!

Holly

Humorous Argument

I chose to draw a cartoon for my humorous piece. In the cartoon I use humor by quoting students listening to a lecture given by Ward Churchill on how the moon is made of cheese. One of the students is saying that the information can't be right and her friend says that since he is the professor it must be right. Then to further the mockery of Churchill I have another student on the end saying that the information came from a paper that he wrote in the 4th grade. This is making fun of the plagiarism charges against Churchill. Churchill is also wearing a feather headdress to mock his invalid claims to be of Native American descent. 

Humorous Example

When the issue with Professor Ward Churchill began, a couple of years ago, I saw a cartoon in a local newspaper portratying Churchill dressed in flamboyant Indian attire in front of a class, giving a lecture on plagiarism. This is funny because the fact that Churchill claimed his Native American ancestry when there are only traces of Indian heritage in his geneology. It is also funny because Churchill had recently been investigated for plagiarism, so he would never be allowed to give a lecture on how to avoid plagiarism. The artist of ths cartoon was exaggerating the issues at hand, making them funny. I think that I might go about writing my humor piece in this same way. I do not know what media I will choose, but exaggeration will most likely be the best way to make this situation humorous. There are a lot of possibilities for this, especially because Churchill recently filed a lawsuit against the University of Colorado and won, 1 whole dollar.

Author's Note

This draft of my Op-ed piece is mostly complete in terms of length. I think that I might need a better conclusion to the piece, but for the most part it seems complete. I feel like I jump around a lot in this piece, so help on where I need to focus more specifically would be great. I would also like to know if you think that I took a strong enough stance within my paper. As always, help with grammar, wording, details, etc. would be very helpful. Thanks!
Holly Buechner

Op-Ed Prewriting

1) The general tone of op-ed pieces in the Washington Post is academic and includes appeals largely to ethos and logos. The appeals to pathos are also present but are not as prevalent in the pieces that I read. The audience seems to be conservative American's from across the nation, most likely aging from adulthood to upper middle age. The interesting thing about these pieces is that they take on more of a scholarly tone than I had originally expected for an opinion piece. They give plenty of quotations and statistics (when applicable) to prove their scholarly value and intellect to the readers. There was little sarcasm and issues were addressed in a much more serious manner than I had expected.
2) In my opinion piece I would like to target the issue of academic misconduct and academic integrity within the community of college professors. After reading and hearing about Ward Churchill and the controversy surrounding his time at the University of Colorado at Boulder, it is a difficult task for a college student to look at his or her professors with the same sense of respect. This has nothing to do with that specific professor but more to do with the pedestal that Churchill smashed. After hearing about what he has done, it would be foolish for students and administrators alike not to look into cases of possible academic misconduct in their own community. I find the matter to be of great importance and that is why I chose this aspect as the basis of my own opinion piece.
3) I would like to show my readers how important the issue of academic misconduct truly is in our lives. It affects more than just the students. Plagiarism from a professor not only cheats the students but also cheats society as a whole because the young adults that will soon be running businesses and creating policies are not getting the best education that they possibly could. I would like to show how vital it is to society that we have trustworthy individuals educating the up and coming leaders. I would also like to discuss a possible solution to the current cases of academic misconduct. This would be a "zero-tolerance" sort of policy that would override tenures and other barriers.
4) The most effective appeals for my audience will be appeals to logos and pathos. The type of pathos that I will use will be one that gives the readers a sense of urgency and concern for the future of America and the students at our institutions of higher learning. I will do some research on the specifics of a tenure and the sorts of policies that are currently in place to prevent academic misconduct from teachers and students.
5) Facts and personal experience are most likely going to be helpful to me in writing this article. I also think that including an opinion from an administrator from another university would be helpful, as they are another authority on the matter. The facts that I use will aid readers in understanding the tenure process and the importance of quality education.
6) I will research the tenure policies of the University of Colorado at Boulder as well as the policies of Texas Christian University. I may also research the number of cases of academic misconduct across the United States and look at how those cases were handled.

Letter to the Editor

Author's Note: 

This draft is kind of a stab in the dark. I don't really know if I am approaching the assignment correctly. Any feed back will be helpful, especially in terms of where I need additional information or if you think that the draft is too full of fluff. Thanks!

Holly

To the Editor:

In a recent Denver Post article, titled Vincent Carroll: Ward's world of brazen claims, author Vincent Carroll discusses the ways in which Ward Churchill’s trial is unnecessary and ridiculous. This article, published on March 25, 2009, points out how the media is treating the trial as if the public is not already convinced that Churchill is crazy at best. Rather than seeing the case for the laughing matter that it truly is, we are trying to take it seriously. I agree with the author of this article in saying that the trial is a joke and taking it seriously would display poor judgment on the part of local readers.

I am from Boulder, Colorado where the University of Colorado is based and from which Ward Churchill was fired. My grandfather is a former president of the University, my father a former employee and my brother a current student. I have grown up going to Buff games and cheering for the Buffaloes every chance that I get. I have always been impressed by the success of the University and the academic prestige that follows. Despite the common claims that Boulder is inhabited entirely by left wing hippies, there are some who err on the side of conservative thought. As a member of this small and stubborn few, I know that my definitions of ‘liberal’ and ‘radical’ are not as lenient as some. So I must inform you that I am not alone in my opinions and that many of my traditionally liberal friends agree with me on this matter. It is also important to note that some of the most educated opinions come from Boulder, as right or left wing as they may be. I was not alone in my shock when I heard the kinds of things coming from Ward Churchill and was appalled that he was able to receive any sort of support after making a farce of an entire racial group and compromising the academic integrity of an esteemed university through plagiarism, or as he calls it, “ghostwriting.”

For Churchill to think that he could be reestablished as an educator or a trustworthy scholar after proving to be none of the above is ridiculous. As a college student, I serve as a witness to the academic integrity being upheld by my professors. We are taught to trust their work and their ‘professional opinion,’ but with professors like Ward Churchill in play, we must take a step back and question what we are being taught and the source from which it is coming. If there is any good thing to come of this trial, it is this. College students have learned that professors cannot always be trusted with the pedestals on which they are placed. The collegiate community as a whole is not supporting the actions of this man, but rather is supporting the decisions of the University administration to revoke his position on their tenured staff list. His trial should be fruitless from his perspective and should confirm the actions of the University. We, in the world of academia, are standing behind integrity, respect and quality education systems, and our stance will not be compromised.

Signed,

Holly Buechner

holly.buechner@tcu.edu