James Tarras
February 5, 2008
Letter to the Editor 3
Reply to Democratic nominee: Clinton is better prepared
February 1, 2008
After reading this article, I find it nothing more than another personal political opinion that ended up in the Denver Post. Because I am a supporter of Barack Obama at the moment, I disagreed with much of what the article had to say. I am always open to change if the author of a well written article uses good arguments and supporting evidence to win over the reader, however I didn’t feel this was the case in this article. Why should I change my mind and support Hillary when I really do not see any reason why I should be listening to this author? I felt that the credibility was just not there. If they would have compared her views to past presidents and their successes, or maybe if the level of credibility was at a higher level, then I might consider some of what was being said. “While they share a common vision of America's future, Clinton is more likely to forge that vision into real progress,” said the author in the article, yet without evidence provided I feel I can’t believe this to be a true statement. This article does a little bit too much bashing of Obama’s lack of experience in the past for me and should focus more on the good things Hillary has done.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Letter to Editor 2
Reply to Rent control: a bad idea that hurts all Coloradans
January 29, 2008
This article discusses the proposal of creating rent control laws in Colorado to regulate the city and its buildings. I am on the same side as the author and do not think that this would be beneficial to the residents of Colorado at all. The author uses a lot of good evidence to back up his reasoning on why he feels this would be an insufficient bill to pass. Although he makes a generalization that the majority of economists dislike rent control, his other reasons successfully persuade me to agree with him. His evidence is that rent control discourages construction of needed housing, it reduces the supply of rental housing so people can get out of unprofitable business, and also referenced a part in which Paul Weissman, the man who proposed the bill, called rent control a “failed economic policy.” If somebody is trying to pass a bill and in their proposal make a statement about how it is a failed policy, then the bill should have no right in being passed. Overall, I feel that the author did a great job getting his readers to agree with him by using supporting evidence and didn’t leave them wondering how he formed his opinion.
January 29, 2008
This article discusses the proposal of creating rent control laws in Colorado to regulate the city and its buildings. I am on the same side as the author and do not think that this would be beneficial to the residents of Colorado at all. The author uses a lot of good evidence to back up his reasoning on why he feels this would be an insufficient bill to pass. Although he makes a generalization that the majority of economists dislike rent control, his other reasons successfully persuade me to agree with him. His evidence is that rent control discourages construction of needed housing, it reduces the supply of rental housing so people can get out of unprofitable business, and also referenced a part in which Paul Weissman, the man who proposed the bill, called rent control a “failed economic policy.” If somebody is trying to pass a bill and in their proposal make a statement about how it is a failed policy, then the bill should have no right in being passed. Overall, I feel that the author did a great job getting his readers to agree with him by using supporting evidence and didn’t leave them wondering how he formed his opinion.
Letter to Editor
Reply to Pay to Use I-70 at Peaks?
Jan. 25, 2008
This article presents a very touchy topic for drivers who commute from Denver to the mountains on weekdays or weekends. The idea that cars should pay 5 to 12 dollars per drive on I-70 angers me because it is not like gas isn’t expensive enough. I feel that this attempt to appeal to the emotions of commuters is unsuccessful and would only create more angry drivers on the road. People will still go to the mountains, however now the heavy traffic will either be at a different time of day to avoid tolls, or there will still be the normal traffic pattern with angrier people. I do not think this is a good idea whatsoever, and I become heated inside thinking about paying more money to snowboard.
Using the toll money to create a free bus service to the mountains is an idea I am in favor of, however, unless the convenience of the bus was very high, time and location wise (lots of stops in Denver), I still do not support this. This ecological carpool system is said to have bus-only express lanes, yet with tunnels and things of that sort, taxpayers would only be throwing out more money on top of the initial 5 to 12 dollar fee.
Jan. 25, 2008
This article presents a very touchy topic for drivers who commute from Denver to the mountains on weekdays or weekends. The idea that cars should pay 5 to 12 dollars per drive on I-70 angers me because it is not like gas isn’t expensive enough. I feel that this attempt to appeal to the emotions of commuters is unsuccessful and would only create more angry drivers on the road. People will still go to the mountains, however now the heavy traffic will either be at a different time of day to avoid tolls, or there will still be the normal traffic pattern with angrier people. I do not think this is a good idea whatsoever, and I become heated inside thinking about paying more money to snowboard.
Using the toll money to create a free bus service to the mountains is an idea I am in favor of, however, unless the convenience of the bus was very high, time and location wise (lots of stops in Denver), I still do not support this. This ecological carpool system is said to have bus-only express lanes, yet with tunnels and things of that sort, taxpayers would only be throwing out more money on top of the initial 5 to 12 dollar fee.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Appeals to Pathos in The Denver Post
In the Denver Post, I found two articles or adds that each made me react in a different way. The first one was a letter to the editor having to do with the war in Iraq. In the letter it talks about how the reader dislikes how troops are viewed as just numbers or military property rather than humans. One of the reader's relatives got hurt in the war, and was sent back with a hurt leg. This article, trying to get sympathy for troops and their families, had a picture of a man in military uniform, crutching along with a hurt leg. This was a successful emotional appeal because it made me feel sympathetic towards troops and their families, and made me feel that the military should be more forgiving with their soldiers.
The second add was a cancer fund advertisement that says "DONATE YOUR CAR" in large bold letters. I think this add is also supposed to make you feel sympathetic and want to help or donate to the cancer fund as advertised. I did not feel this way though. I did not feel sympathetic towards the fund, yet I felt the ad was lacking information and made me not want to donate because it left me hanging.
The second add was a cancer fund advertisement that says "DONATE YOUR CAR" in large bold letters. I think this add is also supposed to make you feel sympathetic and want to help or donate to the cancer fund as advertised. I did not feel this way though. I did not feel sympathetic towards the fund, yet I felt the ad was lacking information and made me not want to donate because it left me hanging.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Informal Writing #2 - Letter
Dear Dr. Schonberg
I feel that the writing that was done in my freshman seminar was very significant and prepared me well for second quarter. The class that I chose to take was called Celluloid Government: American Politics through Film. Being a film major in the Communications department, I initially chose this class because the film aspect of the class interested me. I am not very interested in politics; however I thought that maybe this class would help to raise that appeal a little bit more by the end of the quarter. I think it was fairly successful in a sense that I am more interested in the political world now than I was before enrolling in my seminar.
In this class, we would watch a political movie every Monday and discuss the films on Wednesdays. As we watched the films we were required to take notes about the given theme that we were prompted with before the film and email them to my professor afterwards. These notes would help us prepare ourselves to write papers and would also help us to engage more in discussions of the films. During discussions we would go very in depth about the plot, characters, and themes of the film and how it related to politics and what we were talking about in class. These discussions really helped to prepare for writing papers on the films and were a good way to clear up any questions or confusing parts of the films. We did not write papers every week; however we would write them every 2 to 3 weeks or so about the movies we had seen. Often times, two consecutive movies would have similar themes like good guys/bad guys, the significance of cinematography, corrupt cities or groups, and other topics of that nature. Most of the papers were compare and contrast papers linking politics into a certain topic like previously stated within 2 or 3 films. For example, one paper I wrote was comparing and contrasting the characteristics of the “villains” in Advise and Consent, 12 Angry Men, and The American President. I think that these papers prepared me well for analyzing films or readings for specific themes and being able to compare them to other writings or movies. Most of these papers were around 3-6 pages typed and double spaced and really forced you to analyze movies for similarities and themes rather than simply watching them for enjoyment. I did enjoy this class and the papers we wrote because analyzing movies is something that interests me, yet I was challenged by the political nature of most of the assignments because I am not very interested in politics, however that was somewhat changed by the time the class ended.
I feel that this course prepared me well for my second quarter of college writing, however it did lack some skills that were needed. My seminar focused mostly on comparisons rather than narratives or persuasive papers. Although my high school prepared me extremely well on almost all kinds of writing, my freshman seminar did not touch upon more than one type of writing. Overall, the writing in my seminar was very worthwhile, interesting, and prepared me well for my second quarter of college, however, I would like to branch out into more areas of writing which I think this class will do a lot of.
Sincerely,
James Tarras
I feel that the writing that was done in my freshman seminar was very significant and prepared me well for second quarter. The class that I chose to take was called Celluloid Government: American Politics through Film. Being a film major in the Communications department, I initially chose this class because the film aspect of the class interested me. I am not very interested in politics; however I thought that maybe this class would help to raise that appeal a little bit more by the end of the quarter. I think it was fairly successful in a sense that I am more interested in the political world now than I was before enrolling in my seminar.
In this class, we would watch a political movie every Monday and discuss the films on Wednesdays. As we watched the films we were required to take notes about the given theme that we were prompted with before the film and email them to my professor afterwards. These notes would help us prepare ourselves to write papers and would also help us to engage more in discussions of the films. During discussions we would go very in depth about the plot, characters, and themes of the film and how it related to politics and what we were talking about in class. These discussions really helped to prepare for writing papers on the films and were a good way to clear up any questions or confusing parts of the films. We did not write papers every week; however we would write them every 2 to 3 weeks or so about the movies we had seen. Often times, two consecutive movies would have similar themes like good guys/bad guys, the significance of cinematography, corrupt cities or groups, and other topics of that nature. Most of the papers were compare and contrast papers linking politics into a certain topic like previously stated within 2 or 3 films. For example, one paper I wrote was comparing and contrasting the characteristics of the “villains” in Advise and Consent, 12 Angry Men, and The American President. I think that these papers prepared me well for analyzing films or readings for specific themes and being able to compare them to other writings or movies. Most of these papers were around 3-6 pages typed and double spaced and really forced you to analyze movies for similarities and themes rather than simply watching them for enjoyment. I did enjoy this class and the papers we wrote because analyzing movies is something that interests me, yet I was challenged by the political nature of most of the assignments because I am not very interested in politics, however that was somewhat changed by the time the class ended.
I feel that this course prepared me well for my second quarter of college writing, however it did lack some skills that were needed. My seminar focused mostly on comparisons rather than narratives or persuasive papers. Although my high school prepared me extremely well on almost all kinds of writing, my freshman seminar did not touch upon more than one type of writing. Overall, the writing in my seminar was very worthwhile, interesting, and prepared me well for my second quarter of college, however, I would like to branch out into more areas of writing which I think this class will do a lot of.
Sincerely,
James Tarras
Informal Writing #1 - Freshman Seminar
My freshman seminar that I took last quarter was very writing oriented. The class I took was called Celluloid Government: American Politics through Film. In this class, we would watch a political movie every Monday and discuss the films on Wednesdays. As we watched the films we were required to take notes about the given theme that we were prompted with before the film. During discussions we would go very in depth about the plot, characters, and themes of the film and how it related to politics and what we were talking about in class. These discussions really helped to prepare for writing papers on the films and were a good way to clear up any questions or confusing parts of the films. We did not write papers every week; however we would write them every 2 to 3 weeks or so about the movies we had seen. Often times, two consecutive movies would have similar themes like good guys/bad guys, the significance of cinematography, corrupt cities or groups, and other topics of that nature. Most of the papers were compare and contrast papers linking politics into a certain topic like previously stated within 2 or 3 films. Most of these papers were around 3-6 pages typed and double spaced and really forced you to analyze movies for similarities and themes rather than simply watching them for enjoyment. I did enjoy this class and the papers we wrote because analyzing movies is something that interests me, yet I was challenged by the political nature of most of the assignments because I am not very interested in politics.
I feel that I was very well prepared by my high school for college writing at The University of Denver. I took a Rhetoric class my senior year and I feel that that class really boosted my writing skills in many different fields of writing. Throughout high school, I wrote many different kinds of papers such as poems, persuasive papers, research papers, narrative papers, debates and other things too. Overall, I feel I am very ready to be enrolled in college writing courses.
I feel that I was very well prepared by my high school for college writing at The University of Denver. I took a Rhetoric class my senior year and I feel that that class really boosted my writing skills in many different fields of writing. Throughout high school, I wrote many different kinds of papers such as poems, persuasive papers, research papers, narrative papers, debates and other things too. Overall, I feel I am very ready to be enrolled in college writing courses.
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