CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Chapter sixteen in Lunsford et al 2009 comprises of various sources as evidence to support one’s argument. But what exactly counts as evidence?

For the sake of arguments, Lunsford explains of two different types of evidence and research. According to our class’ holy book, the two are firsthand evidence and secondhand evidence.

Under the firsthand evidence portion lies five types of similar, yet very different firsthand evidence. They are the following: Observations, Interviews, Surveys and Questionnaires, Experiments, and finally Personal Experience.

Observations- are based on what you saw with your own eyes, then record it all down on a piece of paper... at the same time, make sure your observations are relevant directly to your claim. Be sure to write down specific date, time, and place to further help your claim.

Interviews- is considered firsthand because you see or hear it ‘firsthand’ from another for his or her expert opinion, biological information, or suggestions.

Surveys and Questionnaires- can really boost your argument because the ‘evidence’ is based on a group of people’s answers. The questions are usually relevantly easy to use and to understand and includes ‘yes or no’ answers or scaled answers (on a scale from 1 to 5).

Experiments- can be of any caliber from severely exact controlled conditions to loose-controlled environments. It also reflects the conductor’s creativity. Experiments often offer concrete information that can extremely aid the argumentative claim.

Personal Experience- is pretty much self- explanatory and “can serve as powerful evidence when it’s appropriate to the subject, to your purpose, and to the audience.” however if your personal experience is the only factor you have to support your argument, the overall degree of your argument probably would not be a good one.

Secondhand evidence only has two branches: Library Sources and Online Sources. While these two are most commonly used by us, academic students...probably more goes for the latter.

As long as I’ve been writing, I would say I use my own personal experience and online sources to strengthen my claim. That way, I develop my pathos, ethos, and logos. I would also like to think I establish my own credibility in my personal experience. I strongly believe in narrating a story and linking it to information found from sources online will better connect to the audience.

While all the other aspects of firsthand evidence and research are respectable and probably will carry just as equally well. I frankly prefer to use my own personal experience and online sources mainly because it is not difficult and pretty much straightforward.

Evaluation of Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth’s intensity and creativity undoubtably captured and as well as fascinated millions around the world, from gore-loving teenagers to middle-aged movie critics. The movie is uniquely based on a child’s ‘adult-rated’ fairy tale fantasies and not many other movies have similar plots, or anything remotely close to it, really.

As we all know that disobedience is the central theme of the movie, Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by del Toro. What if disobedience is the central theme of life? The life we live everyday. Everyday we make from minor to major decisions and every decision we make either ‘obeys or disobeys’ others in a ripple effect. Every decision ultimately has a consequence of some sort.

Allow me to provide an example of how Ofelia perfected my ripple effect theory. Every time the courageous little girl went against her mother, her very pregnant mother grew more stressed and thus adding more strain on her pregnancy. Captain Vidal became restless and unmerciful when it came to his wife’s constant episodes of writhing in pain. Maybe because of Captain Vidal’s irritation at home caused his violent lashings to innocent bystanders. The faun is another instance of my theory. Right from when the faun met Ofelia, his acts of persuasion to draw Ofelia in the imaginary world ultimately led to her gruesome death.

Body language and gestures is another aspect of Pan’s Labyrinth that I think is necessary to include in evaluating the film. Ofelia demonstrated many timeless examples of defiable body language. For instance, at the very beginning of the movie, when Captain Vidal and Ofelia met for first time, she stuck out her left hand for a handshake. That was a classic symbolic move divulging disobedience and disrespect. Notice that every time Ofelia disobeyed, her shoulders are lopsided and she has one foot back. Another exceptional example is when the faun asked for the baby brother, she backed out with a foot and her dominant shoulder slung back. However, Ofelia did not always disobey this way. As she completed her first task as instructed by the faun, she walked back to the farmhouse confidently with her dirty, newly-made dress.

The antagonist, also known as Captain Vidal, did not obey. He actually demanded the complete opposite. He always looked confident and ‘assured.’ Most of the time, his hands were behind his straightened back and that posture expected obedience from every one else around him. His stance portrayed a perfect example of dominant body language.

Mercedes, the ‘second mother’ of Ofelia, was secretly allied with the rebels in the forest and thus was the informant in the house. In her scenes with the captain, her body language was ‘closed up,’ (because she was hiding her true self). She almost never gave eye contact because that was her way of disobeying. In her final scene with Captain Vidal where she rescued the baby boy from his monsterous father, she bluntly refused to abide the captain’s wish to eventually inform his son about his biological father.

As for the doctor, like Mercedes, he rarely maintained eye contact with the captain and his men. When facing Captain Vidal, he tucked in his chin to protect his exposed throat, which means the doctor was ‘hiding.’ He often spoke in short sentences or uttered one-worded answers indirectly. His final act of disobedience and rebel turned out to be his last. He stood up against the captain and turned his back on him. Captain Vidal consequently fatally shot him.

The faun’s meeting with the girl for the first time was carefully thought and planned out. He was sure not to be too up close and personal with Ofelia. To gain her trust so she could perform the tasks, he could not ‘invade’ her personal bubble. For the third and final task, he pretended to want the baby but since Ofelia had to refuse and offered herself instead. The faun transformed his body language from being gentle to being rough. He intentionally popped the bubble be getting in Ofelia’s face to create discomfort for the frightened girl. That ultimately led to Ofelia making the right decision after all.

Through disobedience and body language, one might learn that the world wouldn’t be able to revolve with out the two factors.

Purdue OWL Website

The Purdue OWL website is a credible source in assisting you in understanding and improving your writing. I feel this webpage should act as a huge role in your writing whether you need to write a ten-page research paper or a simple five-paragraph essay for your history class. It clearly states what your thesis should look like, what is too broad or what is too narrow. Warrants, claims, and rebuttals are all factors to support your thesis.

So should Gallaudet University follow this website? Yes. Not just Gallaudet University but every other university there are in this world. It should be the unwritten rubric for every single piece of writing. This website should be used as a guide because it inevitably applies to every writing rubric ever made.

The Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric covers only five aspects of writing; assignment formatting and citing, written English conventions, critical thinking, organization of ideas, and author’s personal tone and audience awareness. Purdue University’s Writing Rubric includes all of those aspects and provides an explicit explanation for each one. Whereas the Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric looks weaker in comparison: there is no mention of warrants, evidence, or rebuttals. They are crucially critical when it comes to writing.

In my experience, I always have had a difficult time writing mainly because I never know if my thesis is good enough or if my arguments are strong enough to support my claim. I was never taught to use a counterclaim or rebuttals to make my thesis stronger. After reading this website, I feel more confident in my writing as I will continue to use the Purdue University’s Writing Rubric, as well as Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric.

Another aspect of the Purdue University’s Writing Rubric that I liked was that it included logos, ethos, and pathos (as mentioned in the Lunsford book). I feel it is extremely critical to have those three factors incorporated in every piece of writing. In the Purdue University’s Writing Rubric is the perfect combination of Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric and Chapters Two to Four in the Lunsford et al. 2007 book. When logos, ethos, and pathos are used, the writing automatically become a stronger piece and it will connect with the readers more intimately. The readers will grasp a better concept with your writing.

Frankly, I am envious of the students at Purdue University because they must be writing their papers with such ease while the students of the rest of the world are struggling. Purdue University deserves to be praised for their Writing Rubic because it is transparent that a lot of thought and time were dedicated in making this perfect rubric.

Pan's Labyrinth- del Toro's Greatest Creation

Well, I must say this film absolutely blew me away. ..

Pan’s Labyrinth is an interesting and spooky story set against the backdrop of a fascist regime in countryside Spain in 1944.

Right from the start, the film contained ‘out-there’ colors and bizarre angles, you would know that this movie would not be like any other movie you’ve ever seen. Pan’s Labyrinth includes kooky twists of children’s fairy tales and it definitely breaks numerous general ‘film rules.’

The film centered on Ophelia, a pre-teen girl, who was just a bit ‘imaginative.’Her mother married and is impregnated by a hard-headed, fascist captain in the midst of a civil war in Spain. So Ophelia and her mother moved to an old farm house located in the middle of a forest surrounded by a group of rebels.

Ophelia often wandered from reality and walked into a world of fairies and unicorns. That all changed when fantasy became reality as Ophelia found a weird-shaped rock that belonged in a totem of stone. Her discovered rock was the final piece to the puzzle and from there the entire challenge unraveled.

With a natural instinct to always disobey, Ophelia found herself in an ancient world where she had to complete three tasks so she could return home as the long lost princess. As the film went on, she completed those tasks with huge obstacles in the way. She had to face a gross, overweight frog and a child-eating mutilated being.

In the end, she was murdered by her step-father, the Captain, and ultimately was freed from her currant body and her soul traveled back to where it belonged. The ancient, mysterious world.

This film had many metaphors, abstract meanings, and parallels to the bible. It is quite impossible to come up with one solution or answers every single little detail in the movie. Even after a few times of watching the movie, you still would not obtain only one answer. A huge part in this is definitely the theme; disobedience. If everyone followed orders and did what they were told, the plot would not be possible and the world would be a boring place.

Ophelia, among a few others (Mercedes, the doctor, the rebels, etc) went with their gut instinct with every decision opportunity presented. Ophelia chose to ignore her mother and ran off to the labyrinth to complete her tasks, and Mercedes ignored the Captain and aided the rebels hidden in the trees.

Color played a huge role in this film. In the beginning, the movie started out having a normal color contrast until after Ophelia completed her first task. Every day was a rainy day ever since. This may see like a minor thing but in actuality it is major. The film continued to use dark colors until the very end when Ophelia dies. That was when the movie made a complete one eighty turn to a scene with bright and super bold colors.

It's hard to have a personal engagement in this one. I never was into 'fairy tales' growing up so I never had much of an imagination. In no way can I ever relate to Ophelia in her bravery. But Ophelia and I do have something similar; we disobey when we feel the need to. If the Captain was my step-father, I probably would be the first person to be murdered.

Overall, this movie was very interesting.. actually... the word ‘interesting’ doesn’t even cut it, doesn’t even describe a portion of this film. Pan’s Labyrinth requires a lot of analysis (the bigger the group, the better) and abstract thinking. del Toro is a pure genius and he has a lot of guts to make a movie of this caliber.

Rhetorical Analysis

In Myriam Marquez’s article, “Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public” (p.754 in Lunsford et al 2009), she described how bilingual people tend to speak to one another in their native language in public. In America, some people may view that as rude behavior while others are okay with it. Marquez made a point by clarifying that the United States of America does not have an official language and derived pieces of American history to reveal how unkind society has been to bilingual people.

She also wrote about etiquette when it comes to speaking a different language in public. For instance, if two people are speaking in their native tongue (other than English) to each other, normally people around the couple would be concerned and raise suspicions that the non-English speaking people are talking about them. Marquez argued that illogical thinking. However if a group is talking in a different language but is leaving out a member of the bunch, Marquez disapproved of this action.

This article made me think about myself and my family. I was never encouraged to use my voice in public. I was raised to express myself freely through American Sign Language in public or not. I’ve never once thought if people around me thought I was talking about them. But honestly? I don’t think they have the right to think that way because I am protected by the First Amendment: free to speak what I want in the language I want.

I think Marquez did a great job convincing her readers to be more open-minded when it comes to speaking a foreign language in public. She gave examples and all that but I just felt she did not give enough emotional appeal to it. She didn’t say anything about how the native speakers felt or what society felt. It seems that she wrote this article not feeling the need to elaborate society’s norms when it comes to speaking in different languages in public. I also felt that she needed to include more personal experiences since it’s very obvious English isn’t her first language. As a bilingual person, I think she should have been more “connected” to her topic.

When you write something, you always have to give the full explanation. You cannot always assume your readers “will use their common sense.” This article was not thoroughly convincing. In my opinion, her article is very weak because it lacked ethos, pathos, and logos.

List of This I believe

• eternal happiness
• karma
• passion
• something bigger than the universe
• living a life with no regrets
• a world without racism, stereotypes, and hate.
• peace and unity
• art
• exploring the unknown
• myself

Nafisi in Lunsford

I thought that Azar Nafisi wrote a powerful piece about empathy. Empathy is “the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another” (www.dictionary.com). The author used a vital comparison to Huckleberry Finn as an argument, along with several others as arguments. The key concept or moral of this short piece is simple. Are you willing to stray away from society’s beliefs to do what you think is right?

Visualize being a little boy, being told that if you were to free slaves you would go to “everlasting fire.” Imagine the twists and knots in the little boy’s stomach. He is having little spurts of good memories filled with happiness and laughter with his friend. His black friend. A slave. Huckleberry Finn decides to screw it and he’ll go to hell. He was following what he thought was right. Not everyone can do that, it’s quite tough to go against everyone else’s beliefs and do as you please. Azar Nafisi used Huckleberry Finn’s story as an example of an argument with emotions. She was smart to use him because of the child innocence shown in Huckleberry Finn’s persona .

Azar Nafisi also wrote of a very personal experience that divulged empathy of others. She recalled a time when she taught at the University of Tehran in an extremely radical period in Iran. She, among others, were expelled. Two students who she regularly has heated arguments about their differences stood up for her. The two students were actively involved at the University’s Muslim Students’ Association, but despite their obvious differences, the two students did what they thought was right in their hearts. And that was to support her in a time of need. One of the students said, “Remember your own lectures on Huck Finn? Let’s just say, he is not the only one who can risk going to hell!” (Lunsford, p. 910) This is an example of an argument based on character and moral values.

When it comes to empathy, I do not think there should be arguments based on reason and facts because sometimes reason and facts just do not have much of a role and not nearly as important as emotions, character and values. Who can be as brave and courageous as Huckleberry Finn, a stubborn ten-year old boy? Would you be willing to burn in everlasting fire? Spend eternity in hell?