Thoughts and reflections

2003-12-07T18:39:00.000-05:00

A Self Evaluation

As I look back on the writing I have done this semester, I find there are some assignments which I did moderately well and some which I did extremely poor in. Perhaps it is something in my mind which views everything at two extremes, either really good or really bad. A real problem with my writing is that I write well only when I’m in the “mood” to write. It is like a wave in the sea, rising and falling and the timings of this rise and fall are not under my control most of the time. The only time I can make this wave rise is perhaps when I write on something with my own imagination or perhaps on some general topic of the world which would be on my mind during that period of time.

Although I am not qualified enough to make a judgment on my writing (I say this because my judgment has been somewhat contrary to that of my Professor – for example, in my first paper, he gave me a ‘B’ grade whereas I thought I did not deserve more than a ‘C’. Again this may be due to my extreme mind) yet I will try my level best. Another reason why I find it difficult to reflect upon my writing is that only the papers have been graded and as there were only two papers, there is only a vague idea of what kind of writing will fetch an ‘A’ grade. Perhaps that is why I never got an ‘A’ in either of my assignments.

When I look back at my writing, the first thing which points itself to me is the problem I face in understanding the term ethos or credibility of the author. Perhaps even now, I have not figured out how the ethos of an author is established. It is said that ethos is something that is outside the writing, the credibility of the author. Well, my question is that if a person does not know who the author is, then where can the ethos come from? I never asked this question out loud and this maybe the reason why I always used statements from the writing as reasons for ethos. One example of this is in my first paper on the second last paragraph. I mentioned that some of the claims being outrageous dampened the ethos of the author but actually, it would dampen the logos.

Another thing which I struggled with was and still is causal arguments. In this entry, I found a suitable editorial on which to write the entry but I could not identify the causal argument at all. I have yet to understand causal arguments, how to understand them and how to analyze them.

The one entry which I think I did pretty well on was the blogs by Riverbend. In this entry I felt that I effectively identified the main argument of the blog entry or rather entries. I may have been over emphatic about that blog (I say this because many of the students pointed out that Riverbend had no evidential support for her arguments) but if this is true, then I feel that even blogs by people like Salam Pax (which is not even his real name as in the case of Riverbend) cannot be trusted either. I say this because even though some people have met the man doesn’t mean that whatever Salam says is the truth or the whole truth for that matter. Here, I would like to point out the story of the seven men and the elephant. It goes like this that six of these men had ever seen the elephant and the seventh was the owner or mahout of the elephant. Five of the men were blindfolded and made to touch various parts of the elephant like the tusks, the legs, the tail, the trunk and the ears. Each of the five men gave different answers as to what the elephant maybe like. One said it was like a cylinder (the one who touched the leg), one said it was long and tapering at one end (the one who touched the trunk) and so on. The sixth man was shown the entire elephant and he was the one who gave the most accurate description of how it looked like. However, it was only the mahout of the elephant who could tell exactly what the elephant felt, how it behaved and so on. What I’m trying to get at with this small story is that the people who read these blogs know only the part of the person from what they make of the writing. The person who has actually seen the person can give a better idea about that blogger than most of us. However, it is only the person that knows the blogger that can give us a reason as to why the blogger writes in a particular way and what might be going on in that blogger’s mind when a particular entry is published. It is only that person who knows more or less what the blogger’s feelings are and how true they are about a particular entry.

The other blog entries I feel I wrote well were the entry on technologies of memory, the Gallery Assignment, the American Memory Project entry and the one on Mitchell’s essay. I felt each of these entries was successful because they appealed to me in some way or the other and this resulted in a better output from me in each of the cases. All of the above, except the gallery assignment, were discussed in class and the points brought up in these discussions tallied with the points I made on these entries which is another reason why I feel they were successful in general.

The entry on technologies of memory specially and the American Memory Project appealed to me because I like to preserve my past so I can look back at it during my leisure time. However, I do not agree with the author’s (in technologies of memory) method of prominently displaying his personal life on a place like the internet where it is accessible to all of the public. Memories are special to me and I feel that they should only be shared with special people or perhaps people related to that memory. On the other hand, the American Memory Project I felt was an important undertaking as it helps analyze our society and the changes it has undergone along with providing film student to study audiences in various time frames.

The gallery assignment was special to me because I was really impressed with the museum that I visited or rather the location and surrounding of the museum. I felt that though it was a sort of narration of my experience at the museum, at the same time, I felt that I effectively conveyed the importance of such a museum or any museum in general.

Finally, the entry on Mitchell’s essay was a sort of outlet I was looking for to discuss about the perfect world. I feel that people like Mitchell look only at “the good things” in life which is to say that they have a really vague idea about the truth. What I mean to say is that when Mitchell says that E-topia is here, I disagree on that point because there cannot be an E-topia with two extremes as in one part of the world with advanced internet technology and the other where people struggle to get even one square meal a day. I felt that I emphasized this well in my entry and thus I felt that I analyzed his essay fairly well by saying that we should not be overwhelmed by what we have achieved, rather we should focus on what we can make better.

Upon reflecting back to the assignments for this class, I find that I could have done much better and there is a lot of scope for improvement. The thing that is required is practice and a lot of it. There is still the need for me to remember and understand the “technical” aspects of analyzing arguments (like identifying ethos and causal arguments) and also effectively making claims by providing evidence in support of it. I feel that these two aspects need the most work on. Besides this, I feel that I am attuned to a style of writing which would convince a particular person. Thus, I look for things that my “single person” audience looks for in an argument. This is a very dangerous thing as most of the arguments I will make in future will cater to a large audience. Besides these, there is the problem with my introductions and conclusions. Sometimes I feel that my introductions are too general (as in the case of my second paper). Again, for conclusions, my conclusions seem to be like a summary of my arguments which sounds too general and monotonous. Thus I feel that working on these things will definitely help me evolve as a writer and make my arguments more plausible.

2003-12-06T14:09:00.000-05:00

The presentations of the group blogs were really well done. The first group was the luckiest as they got the maximum time (about forty minutes). The other groups did well to present themselves within the time limit. The presentation that interested me the most was the gaming one as I myself am a game freak. However, I am going to write about the "naughty athletes" presentation. The group did well to present their material. However, I feel that there was a lack of practice and coordination between them. The material was definitely good, but the presentation felt a bit informal. Not that our group did any better with ours. The overall best presentations I felt were of the first and last groups. Perhaps, the "naughty athletes" presentation could have been better if there were a few video clips of athletes misbehaving on the field caught on camera (like Mike Tyson). Another aspect according to me was that the group concentrated only on "American" sports and sports figures (there was a little mention about the Olympics but that was it). There was no mention of Maradona and his drug abuse even though soccer is probably the most popular sport around the world as a whole.
The points made about the Kobie Bryant case, were informative and well presented. There was a lot of research work involved in getting the facts about this case as well as about the drugs used in sports. Thus the effort put in was apparent.
Though my criticism maybe harsh and maybe even baseless in some instances, I hope that this will help the group in future presentations; that is my only intention.

2003-11-19T21:49:00.000-05:00

Mitchell's essay speaks more of the idyllic than the facts and thus it is hard to swallow what he is saying. He speaks of E-topia and feels that this ideal world can be achieved or rather has been achieved due to the revolution in internet technology. This is far from the truth. Agreed that internet technology has revolutionized the way we work, but it is still not time that we can put our work life at stake on it. The lack of security on the internet is a growing concern for a lot of firms and companies. Combined with system crashes and power losses, the internet can be one of the biggest threats to privacy and data. Another thing that Mitchell takes for granted is the availability of internet technology to everyone around the world. At preset, there are people living in this world who do not get even one square meal per day. Then how are they supposed to have access to a computer, let alone the internet.

It has been said that beauty can only be appreciated if it is not everlasting. Thus, when Mitchell says that the rich people would prefer to live in scenic locations and manage their work form there using internet technologies, these people are bound to be tired of all the scenic beauty at some time or the other. It is perhaps human nature to be at fault. Thus the idea of an E-topia seems more theoretical than practical. Workplaces and homes would be merged into a single establishment says Mitchell, but he forgets that for work to be done, people are required and a job like manufacturing cars requires the combined effort of all the workers and machines together. It is not practically viable to just contract out jobs to individuals working from their homes. People have to meet and work together. Thus I feel that his idea of the ideal live/work place is a bit too far – fetched.

Overall, his essay provides us with guidelines with which to improve our lives using technology, but E-topia is something we can never achieve in reality. However, that doesn’t mean we stop trying. We should always strive for perfection.

2003-11-11T01:19:00.000-05:00

Tara McPherson's essay about the comparison between the internet and television is something obvious. She feels that the internet is revolutionizing today’s world and it would slowly edge out television. One of the reasons why this seems obvious is that we (the students who are writing these blogs) were born in the mid 1980's and internet is probably about half our age. Thus my point is that we have "grown" together with the internet and thus its capabilities and usefulness seem obvious to us. Another reason why this may seem obvious is the fact that today, most of the world has been "computerized". Thus it is hard to imagine a world without computers and since computers have so many uses (specifically, the internet), this thing seemed inevitable.

The author has a sense of "being in the moment" while she is surfing because she can actively participate. In fact, the choice is hers, whether to surf through a web site or not. Thus she feels that the internet offers tremendous choice, though options may be limited. She feels that the web is "a mediator between man and machine". That it is a "technology of experience". Although she praises the internet and web, she mentions that she is not biased and does not want to imply that one is superior to the other. Rather, she is more specifically interested in exploring the "technologies" of the web. She also feels that television and the web reference each other in some way and thus wishes to explore the capabilities of the web further and how it can complement television.

2003-11-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

Roland Barthe's Camera Lucidia was difficult to evaluate because of the words he used and also because he went deep into a subject, sometimes contradicting himself. He feels that photography is an incomplete picture of someone and that it is a vague term. A photograph represents nothing but the object which is being photographed and thus, the photograph has no identity of its own. Another point he makes about them is that photographs do not offer a "whole" memory of someone. It is successful only as far as capturing the outer expression and features of a person goes. It cannot go into the mind of the person or reveal his thoughts. Thus he says that by looking at a photograph, one cannot say that he/she knows the object (or rather person) being photographed. Even if the photograph manages to capture some emotion on the face of the person being photographed, most of the time, the expression is fabricated because the subject becomes aware and conscious that he is being photographed. Thus he feels that they are a bad way to remember people.

Another notable feature of his writing deals with time and death. He feels that whatever has been there before him is history. Thus, his mother's death would be history to him. When he looks at her pictures, he remembers only parts of her (like her perfume, her clothes etc), but the photographs never give him a true and complete picture of his mother. He remembers her death and remembers how in her last days he had nursed and cared for her. Since he was approaching the same age as his mother when she passed away, he feels that the whole world is empty and hollow and that there is nothing left for him to do but await his own demise. Thus he gets melancholic and nostalgic, speaking about one of the last photographs taken of his mother before her death and tells the readers how tired and worn out she looked.

2003-10-31T01:50:00.000-05:00

The article about American Memory Project is interesting to me simply because of the fact that I love preserving things. I think it is an important insight into the world of film in its childhood days. The fact that these films (most of them) are preserved so well even now is a wonder because films are prone to fungus and are affected by sunlight too. The interesting thing about these films was their length, the silence, the acting and the audience who came to view them. These films are short (about five minutes at the most) and this makes it interesting because it is really difficult to draw the audience's attention in such a short span of time. However, the Execution of Czolgosz is a very good example of such a film which captivates the audience. Although the acting seems too outwardly and unnatural (perhaps to make up for the silence), the gestures do try to put emphasis on explaining the actions. Another interesting aspect related to these films is the audience. The silence in the film was made up for by the audience and it would be an altogether different experience if the same were to happen in today's world. Also, the clever way that the film about the ghost and the grandfather clock (I forget the name) was shot shows us that people in that era too were clever at making their audience wonder as to how someone could paint such a beautiful portrait just by swiping at the canvas with a brush and black paint.

2003-10-20T22:15:00.000-05:00

Museums are supposed to be a place where "history" is preserved. Its not just a place where artifacts are kept so that they are not forgotten, but if a museum is well organized, in an orderly fashion, one can enter a museum and re-live one's past. The old varnished wooden cases (in case of an art museum, the frames) where the artifact is kept, the whole atmosphere of a museum can take someone to an age which one can only imagine. However, for this blog entry, I have chosen to write about the Jimmy Carter Library's museum. The whole location is like a huge estate and is very scenic. The main building consists of two theatres and the museum itself. The long vacant corridor is more welcome than one filled with a large crowd, shouting and shoving. Each artifact can be concentrated upon. This museum holds artifacts related to former president James (Jimmy) Carter. The museum as a whole is very well organized, starting with a list of all the predecessors to Jimmy Carter in the nineteenth century. Further on, it goes on to describe the former president's life in a chronological order. Starting from his parent's, when he was a child, the museum has artifacts like his sixth grade report. Further ahead, it describes his young adulthood and how he rose to fame; senator, governor and finally, president. Then it highlights his achievements as a president and critical success where his predecessors had failed. Between all this chronological sequencing, there are small showcases of artifacts he received from world leaders when he was president. The museum is not monotonic in this fashion; it has a special room full of articles used for the presidential campaign. There is also a special room which is a replica of his office with his voice being played on the recorder. The whole atmosphere seems "rich in his memories". Blinds all over the exits make sure that the sunlight play the spoilsport. There are also about thirty million archives which are orders, bills, discussions he wrote as president. Thus overall, the museum is quite well organized and has a pattern which is easy to follow. This makes our understanding of the former president better and more effective. Although sprawling gallery spaces are considered a waste of space, they are very essential in order to concentrate on the object of our enquiry. These spaces help us grasp better, what an artifact is trying to say.

2003-10-09T22:13:00.000-05:00

In this blog about visual arguments, I have chosen to write about the television show "Bewitched" which used to be aired in the 1960's and 1970's. The main characters in the show were Elizabeth Montgomery who played the character of "Samantha" (Sam for short) and Dick Sargent who was later replaced by Dick York to play the character of "Darrin". The main reason why I chose to write about this show, is because of the fantasy, the imagination and the clever use of humor through which it passed on to the audience an important lesson about a deeper underlying issue. One particular episode which I clearly remember, which addresses an important social condition is the one aired when racial prejudice was at its height. In a very subtle way, through the actions of an innocent child, the episode depicts how racial prejudice is wrong and unjustified and promotes the sense of equality among humans, independant of their colour or race. In this episode, "Darrin's" firm, and advertising one has a client who is racist. In contrast, Darrin's daughter, Tabitha is extremely good friends with a black girl and even calls her a sister. Due to this misunderstanding, the client thinks Darrin is married to a black woman and so he cancels the contract. When he realizes his mistake, he apologizes and is ready to reinstate the contract. This time around, Darrin's boss refuses to take the contract from him. This little episode, in a very subtle way tells the audience how wrong it is to be prejudiced for or against someone just because of the colour of his skin. Considering the time when it was first aired, it just goes to show that even television shows have an important social and moral responsibility. This is what really pleased me about the show. It also tells the audience how simple and innocent a child's mind is and how the right guiding path of a parent can teach the child right from wrong. Although it uses "magic" to get its point accross, the show appealed to people of all ages, which is why it was so successful in fulfilling its moral duty. The whole concept behind the show alongwith its use of humour made it interesting to watch and what better way to get an important lesson accross than to wrap it in a nice package which everyone likes!

2003-10-03T12:06:00.000-05:00

The blog about documenting life by way of pictures is an idea that I could never think of. In fact, the idea of publishing one's life alongwith facts and pictures in such a public place, seems like letting and wanting people to intrude into your privacy. One could document one's life and still not say a lot of private things, but then that would be like hiding facts and being dishonest. Thus the whole idea of documenting life sounds a bit awkward. Neverthless, technologies of memory do fulfill their role to certain extent, but not wholly. One cannot remember every important detail by using these technologies. A lot of sweet and important memories can be retauned by using some object related to that incident. This is the more "conventional" way of remembering things. "conventional" because one can easily imagine, oneself, fifty years years in the future, going to the basement and taking out and old box of things from the past and taking out, one by one, queer objects from the box that remind one of the past.
On a personal note, I have always liked to preserve my memories in some way or the other, since childhood. So, each year, while I was in elementary school and later in high school, I used to have a desk full of "nothings" and my mother would always scold me to clear my drawer. Finally, I decided to let go of some of the stuff and hang on to the important ones. So, I stowed them away neatly in polythene bags.
Thus, technologies do help in keeping memories together, but they can do so only to a certain extent; the small little funny and some embarrassing incidents are often remembered by some object, rather than technologies such as photographs or video etc. Although important events (like birth, graduation, marriage etc) can be remembered by the use of digital technology, it is often the small incidents of one's life which remind the person of our "good 'ol days".
In conclusion, technology plays an important part in keeping memories, but it cannot wholly substitute for objects connected with that memory. For example, if a loved one passes away, then an object given by that person to us is a more valuable source of memory than a picture or a blog about that person.

2003-09-25T22:38:00.000-05:00

For my current blog on causal argument, I had to search really hard (probably because I don't know where to find my material!). My search led me to ananova.com and in that there was this report about hippos which was astounding as well as thought provoking. Although on the surface, the report is just an ordinary news piece, when one goes in depth into it, one realizes about the deeper meaning of it:
How man has come to destroy nature for his own pleasure.
According to the blog,
"Less than 30 years ago, more than 29,000 lived in Virunga National Park, on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But this year's census shows that only 1,300 remain"
The main reason for this decline is due to illegal trading of hippo teeth for ivory. Another reason is the inter-factional fighting which has prevented wildlife organizations to do any sort of productive work in the region.
The blog then goes to describe the effects of such an ecological imbalance. In general, when one thinks about this, on realizes how God has given and man has destroyed. Instead of cherishing and protecting nature, we are slowly but surely destroying our only means of survival; for, without nature, where would we get our food, water and specially our life giving oxygen from?
The blog uses a mix of pathos and logos to make its argument. By using examples and statistics about the hippos in the region and by quoting sources from well known organizations such as WWF, it establishes ethos. It uses pathos to provoke our thoughts about how destructive man is and that in fighting with each other or just for pleasure, man is really harming the ecological balance. The blog uses logos by giving an example of how due to indiscriminate killing and poaching of hippos, the fish have reduced in number and about twenty thousand people around the region depend on fish for their food supply.
Thus the blog successfully establishes its argument. However, it leaves the question unanswered as to what can be done to improve the situation. This is one of the important factors which mark the difference between a successful argument and an unsuccessful one. Though the argument is established, the reader does not know how or what to do to improve the situation and thus, the argument loses the sympathy of the reader and thus sounds like a general statistic or piece of information that does not hold much value for the average reader.

2003-09-19T16:23:00.000-05:00

Riverbend's blogs are interesting to read for the simple fact that her language and tone makes you feel as if you're listening to an ordinary person. Its a friendly, casual tone. I’ve read three blogs of hers and the feature common to all of them is that she uses a tone which sounds genuine and not outward show. Although she cannot provide evidential support to the incidents she describes, she still proves credible to me because of the pathos in her blogs.

The one incident which she describes, which is about one of her neighbors is really effective and that’s what really worked for me, the way she described it. That when soldiers were raiding her neighbors house, the way they treated him was as if he was an animal or had committed a huge crime. When they bring him out of the house, another of the neighbors pleads the soldiers to let the women go inside the house because they hadn’t covered their face (which is a must according to the Islam laws). He understood that it was embarrassing for the women to be dragged out of their house at night without any covering on their faces. The reluctance and harshness of the soldier when seen in the background of this helplessness and the second neighbor’s courage to risk his life in requesting the soldier; this is what makes the incident so powerful and appealing.

In other blogs, she uses scathing criticism against some people on television who are supposed to be from women’s organizations but know hardly anything about the ground reality of the situation of women there.

Overall, her tone is informal and appealing due to the pathos. She is also personally concerned about the harsh conditions the Iraqi’s are facing and feels emphatically for them. This is what adds to her credibility and makes the reader want to read and agree wth her.

2003-09-11T00:30:00.000-05:00

Benjamin's essay about storytelling is like a wake up call to all of us. In this essay, he metions storytelling and how it has been lost and replaced over the years by the more "attractive" media and novels.
Storytelling is an art though today, we hardly find any good story tellers. The art of narrating an experience verbally to an quiet audience waiting breathlessly for every word; a group of people sitting around one person, all with eager and amazed eyes, listening with full concentration. That is a sight one doesn't get to see these days. The days of story telling are fading away and it is being replaced by the more popular novel. However, a bigger threat to story telling comes from the advancement in technology, development of the media. This essay focuses mainly on the advantages of story telling and why this form of art is slowly but steadily dissapearing.
The art of storytelling, as per the author, develops from experience, from stories heard from different people, from travels in foreign lands, to unknown places. He basically classifies storytellers in two categories -
the people who have stayed in their lands and have a knowledge of the local tales and traditions
and
the people who have travelled far and wide and have experiences to share.
Both the kinds enjoy an equally attentive and eager audience. However, these two categories overlap closely. The people who have settled in one place are those who after travelling far and wide have finally chosen to settle down in one place. Thus, the audience would get to hear tales about local traditions as well as faraway lands.
Every story has something or the other to give to the listener. Besides awe and amazement, most stories have either a moral or a practical application. Each story offers some advice or a proverb which makes the listener realize the importance of old sayings, thus preserving traditions while giving a valid reason for it.
The greatest treasure storytelling offers is imagination, creativity and an escape to the miraculous. None of these can be got from a novel. A story captivates the mind and is highly sensous as it makes the listener imagine himself taken away to the land where the story occurs. Each person who narrates a story, can do so successfully only if the story has been embedded in his mind. Each time a storyteller tells a story, he transfers part of himself to his listeners and this way, he becomes immortal.
The basic of storytelling lies not in the importance of the information given in the story, but the way it affects the senses. Each piece information a story provides is meant only to affect the listeners frame of mind, to "pyschologically shade" it. The listener is free to interpret the information the way he likes, it is not enforced on him. In the essay, there is a paragraph which mentions a story by Herodotus about an egyptian king, Psammenitus who is taken prisoner by another king, Cambyses. Cambyses wants to humiliate Psammenitus for which he parades the kings daughter as a maid and his son on the way to be executed. Psammenitus is silent and motionless. But when he sees one of his old servants, an impoverished man, in those ranks, he beats his head giving the greatest signs of mourning. This can be interpreted in a lot of ways, but Herodotus leaves the interpretation to us. In this way, he very successfully shades our mind.
Stories give us a picture of perfectness, of fantasy, of wonder and miracles; something which we cannot see in our real lives. It thus helps incorporate some good, to bring some amount of that perfectness from the story into our lives.
The main reasons given for the "slow death" of storytelling are the advancement of technology and the gradual shift from the stress on "pyschological shading" to information. Advancement in technologies have allowed vast amount of information to be transmitted to a large audience in a short amount of time. The huge amount of information is too much for a single human being to process all at once and thus this information fails to "shade" the mind because the entire thought process is used up just to filter the informtaion. Before the advancement in technology, the mind was relaxed. It could comprehend the information and allow itself to be driven away into a fantasy world. With time, the amount of information grew. People started moving from towns to cities. LIfe was fast in the cities and no one really had the time to sit patiently to listen to a story.
In Tolstoy's words -
"It is strange that Dostoevsky is so widely read......But I simply cannot comprehend why Leskov is not read. He is a truthful writer"
An important point in the essay is that about death and immortality. It is said that the idea of eternity has ever had its strongest source in death. The picture of death was slowly removed from public memory in the nineteenth century as opposed to the twelfth century when it was portrayed in a significant way with the deathbed and all. It is during a person's last hour that he/she imparts all his knowledge, all his experiences, all his wisdom and all that he has to share onto those around him/her. This is the source for stories, advice, traditions and legends. With all this fading away, is it a wonder that storytelling is dying out?
However, those who still have the gift of telling a tale and the others, with the gift of patiently listening to it are glorified. The storyteller is an artist, a teacher, a counsel, an advisor and a sage. The storyteller is on who lets the story speak for himself/herself. This is the aura that surrounds the storyteller.

2003-08-29T14:22:00.000-05:00

Rachel Carson's blog "Damn the media" published 26th August was an interesting blog to read.

Generally, it is seen that people want to forget about bad memories like the death of a close family member. However, the writer firnly beleives that the memory of the 9/11 attacks was not altogether a bad one. She tends to look at the positive side of the whole incident.

The central argument in this case is, although the event (9/11) was of great historical significance, just two years down the line, no one cares about it. The author does not waste time with lengthy introductions and gets straight to the point. The event itelf being of such significance and emotions attached to it, at once reminds the reader of how it all happened. Thus the author has at the beginning of the blog established pathos.

She uses a mix of pathos and logos when she reminds the readers of the historical significance of the whole incident and how it is undermined today, just two years down the line. Thus by appealing to the emotions of the readers, she gets the readers involved in her argument. Another way in which she establishes pathos is by her language and style of writing. She writes in an informal, colloqial style with a lot of satire and sarcasm in her statements. She compares the 9/11 incident with those of Pearly Harbor and the death of Princes Diana. She certainly gets the reader;s approval when she says that the magnitude of importance of 9/11 was greater than that of Pearl Harbor because the latter was in time of war and that the attack was on a military establishment; while those of the former were terrorist attacks on civilians in time of peace. She thus uses logos to add credibility to her argument.

The informal style of writing, partly establishes ethos because the readers feel that the author is speaking in a frank and natural tone. This besides the fact that she is a full blooded American and that she has true feelings for the incident helps in establishing ethos. However, one
backdrop of it is that either none of her friends or relatives died in the attack or she did not mention them. This sort of raises a slight doubt in
the readers' mind as to whether she is an authority on the subject.

The author finally ends up saying that she does not care about the networks not doing enough. She says she has video tapes of the incident as well as those which show the patriotism and goodwill that followed between people that followed. She points out to a very small detail of the rally like concert at the yankee stadium; that is a particular line in a song. Thus she establishes that her feelings for the whole incident a whole hearted and not superficial. So, with all the ethos, pathos, logos and language, the author validates her argument. However, the only one question, which comes to the mind of the reader which opposes her argument is -
The families of the victims have done nothing on a large scale and want to keep everything discrete because it may re-open old wounds. So prehaps we should think about them.

2003-08-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

Hi!
My name is Ankit Hemani. I am a undergraduate student studying at Georgia Tech. I come from Kolkata, India.
Basically, I am a very complicated, shy, inquisitive person.

I say complicated because it turns out from my experience in interacting with people, that there have been more than one instances of me misunderstanding them or taking what they say in a negative way (probably when I'm in a bad mood for the latter reason).

I'm a person who stays in his own shell and doesn't mix freely outside. I do regret this many times but just can't help it. I'm not very good at making friends and just going up to someone to start a conversation.

Inquisitive, maybe probably due to the fact that I don't take things for granted always and don't trust people easily.

Now that I've listed my bad points, I could say something good about myself without feeling guilty! Once I make a friend, I'm very helpful when the need comes and many times go out of the way to help a friend.

Although English is not my first language, its a language which I can best express myself in (not trying to impress you Chuck!). I always have had a sort of "affinity" for the subject when I was in school. I try my best to know more and more about the subject and improve my qualities as a speaker.
Someday, I hope to write a book about my life or even a science fiction thriller.

Among my hobbies are reading, listening to (and sometimes playing) music, playing cards, watching tv, playing on the computer (though there won't be much of that now that I'm here!) and coin-collection(though I don't have a big one, I still try to get some from here and there).

My favourite subjects are Physics, English, Maths and Computers. These were the subjects taught to us in India.

Besides this, I'd just like to add that above everyone and everything, there is God and he's watching every move you make. Don't be afraid of Him because he's always there for you, to help you, but we must have faith in Him and trust Him. God, its said, is everywhere. In all living things, there is God, so we should learn to respect life and respect others just as we want them to respect us. That's probably what the Bible says though I've not read it so I can't say for sure.

So, in everything that you do, remember Him and thank Him for the moment that He has given you.