What Is An Argument? ...................Unit1 Reading Blog

What is an Argument?

            What is an argument? An argument is the way most married couples communicate how they really feel about one another. Seriously, an argument is what you make it. The Writing Arguments text gives philosophical definition of an argument stating, “Arguing is an often pleasurable creative and productive activity that engages us at high levels of inquiry and critical thinking” (Ramage et al.). This sounds more like something an anger management therapist would say. Contrarily, Microsoft synonymies argument with words like quarrel, fight, disagreement, spat, and squabble. Coincidentally, Ramage supports his argument for argument by saying that it is NOT a fight or quarrel. Do I smell a pleasurably creative and productive conversation? 

            The proof is in the pudding, but not everyone likes pudding. This is where the strategy of arguing comes in. An argument is all about persuasion. The statement that argument is not a pro-con debate is debatable in itself. The implicity of the photograph in Figure 1.1 of the text is a great example. Looking at the picture without ever knowing the state of events one could conclude that these people were escaping a horrible situation. This strategic publication successfully provoked US support while the Serbs were consequently forced to make more explicit pleas for help.

The subtlety of an implicit argument can be much more persuasive because people naturally form their own opinions without getting the facts anyways. An unambiguous argument in my opinion will possibly taint the intentions of the issue with unfiltered or misconstrued intensity.  An argument is not only about substance but also presentation. What makes it persuasive is the balance between the two. In the end, one can always agree to disagree.   

Response to James' " What Writing Is".....Unit One

Oh, how right you are James. You seem to have a very good perception of writing process. One hard thing for myself and others to do is to open yourself to criticism and critique. The thing that I sometimes fail to realize is that there are two sides to that door. It also opens for the possibility of positive feedback. Critiques are oftentimes more analytical than critical.

I am a musician in two bands. If I were to shy away from the stage in fear of being booed, I could very well miss out on growing my fan-base of my sister and my mom,lol. Additionally, the passion of a performance is what creates a great show. Communicating with the audience on any type of "stage" is what conquers the thought of vulnerability/concern and changes it to confidence.

...Pulling Teeth Unit One Post One

Writing is like pulling teeth because the words will only come out when they are ready. Try pulling teeth before they are loose enough and there lies the pain/frustration that I am referring to. My teeth are the words and sentences which which must be freed from my mouth/brain in order for new writing ideas to flow. Even after the teeth are pulled, I must stop and wash away the blood (edit the work) or there will be red marks all over the place. Pulling teeth is such a chore that sometimes it is difficult to see the end result, the dollar underneath my pillow.        

The funny thing is that writing used to come very easily to me until I started this whole "re-education of Myron" process last summer. Before then, I loved writing inspirational poetry, sharing stories, and overextending analogies. For me there is was nothing cooler than tastefully and creatively moving a subject, word, or phrase farther than the reader expects it to go. Oh, how I miss those goosebumps! 

Having been out of high school for almost twenty years, I really do not remember being taught a writing format, but I always memorized everything instead of actually learning it. Also, I never wrote anything in high school that was not an assignment. So my enrollment into college and Comp I, after almost two decades of no schooling, forced me to lie back and count backwards from ten to one. I began leisurely writing about fifteen years ago. Since then I have always just written from the heart with no particular rules or boundaries other than those that were self-imposed. Punctuation, fragmentation, spacing, and spelling (or the lack thereof) only contribute to the raw, uncut, and passionate nature of the material -- I guess that was my subconscious excuse for any mistakes made. 

After completing this course I hope to regain my confidence and passion to write. The ability to apply what I LEARN to my pen of creativity can only produce better work. People always think of the pain involved in pulling teeth, but the process in this case will hopefully be therapeutic. If I could just get past the pain of possible errors (that I am almost always never aware of), then there would be a beautiful smile/paper in the end.  

If teeth are not pulled then they become decayed. I surely do not want my writing to die!