Mid-Unit 2 Post

"Shibboleth - Secure Login." Home Organization Selection. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

The author explains that there’s always been a certain tie between science and music, but that it’s been disappearing over time. The author cites scientific examples like the third law of planetary motion. They say that the astronomer Johannes Kepler at one moment expressed planetary motion in musical notation. The author says that without music this world wouldn’t have as many scientific breakthroughs as it does, but believes that scientists are missing out on the musical aspect in their education. This may be because there is less focus on the arts in schools.


Heymont, George. "More Funding for School Arts Programs, Less for Sports." The

Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

This document talks about the difference between arts education and athletics. It uses differences in personalities of individuals who partake in these activities in order to establish its argument. These differences are that musicians are typically more creative and more open to working towards a common goal, while athletes have the win at any cost mentality and are usually very competitive. It also talks about the accomplishments of people who have grown up with a background in the arts.


"Menu." EDgov Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

This article talks about the benefits of music on a student’s academic life. It says that music has already been noted to have noticeable effects on learning capabilities like reading. This article sites students who are either already high academic achievers or have begun to do better in school as a result of obtaining musical education.


"Music Matters: How Music Education Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed."

How Music Education (n.d.): n. pag. Www.aep-arts.org. Web.

This is a pdf document on the benefits that music has on a student’s academic achievement. It talks about how music education prepares students to learn, facilitates student academic achievement, and develops the creative capacities for lifelong success.


"The State Of Music Education In Schools." KPBS Public Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept.

2015.

This is an interview about the current situation of musical education done by Maureen Cavanaugh from KPBS. In this interview Ms.Cavanaugh talks with Russ Sperling, director of Visual and Performing Arts for Sweetwater Union High School District, and Dr. Diana Hollinger, who teaches music education at San Jose State University, about the terrifying decrease in musical education due to budget cuts.

Unit 2 Mid-Unit Post

This post gives research from five different sources about the long-term solutions for the drought in California. As said earlier in our blog, the sources will be cited in MLA format and then following the citation will be a short analysis of the article including the main claim, evidence, and the relation to the California drought. 

"Parched California." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 2 Sept. 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015. <http://www.nature.com/news/parched-california-1.18270>.

The purpose of this article is to explain how the drought in California is affecting many aspects in the state including the extinction of the hypomesus transpacificus, delta smelt, along with farmers and local residents. The evidence that the author provides is how each one of these sources is planning on dealing with this drought. The article revolves around the extinction of the smelt and the author starts the piece off by saying that when water levels in the delta get low, water managers just add more water to prevent the smelt from dying. Unfortunately, the fix isn’t so easy for farmers or other Californians. Local residents have been asked to cut down on their personal water usage, like limiting the amount of water used in water their lawns. Farmers have also been asked to cut down on their usage and their solution has been using irrigation. The last piece of evidence the author gives is that scientists hope for the El Nina, rainy winter, to come to California, but the weather is not reliable and they are going to have to come up with a better long-term plan. The author then finishes the article by saying that if scientists cannot come up with a way to conserve water, then the delta smelt will be gone forever.


"International Self-Powered Building Council; ISPBC Certified AIR-X by UWS: A Sustainable Drinking Water Solution to California Drought." Journal of Engineering (2014): 698. ProQuest. Web. 27 Sep. 2015.< http://search.proquest.com/docview/1614971570?pq-origsite=summon>.

The claim of this article is to persuade the audience that using Untapped Water Systems (UWS), which create water generators within the atmosphere that make clean water and purify the air, is the drinking water solution to California’s drought. The evidence that the author provides in this article is facts and statistics about the UWS. He first states that AIR-X does not use water from reservoirs, but instead gets the water from the air. He then states that by using this system it is 75-100% cheaper than buying bottled water and it uses less power than the bottled water companies. This evidence proofs that this system will be better for the economy as well as the ecosystem. The author then goes on to talk about how much fog the state of California has and then states that the system benefits from increased moisture in the air. Therefore, this system would work perfectly in California. The last evidence that the author provides is that this system will give water to people with reduced access to clean water because it makes water that is 99.9999% bacteria-free. This furthers the authors overall claim that this system should be used in California because it will provide water for everybody. This article relates to the other articles because it provides one solution to the drought in California. If the states uses this solution, there will be a decline in the amount of water used in the reservoirs, which will allow more water to be used for farmers or other needs of Californians.


Johnson, Christina S. "California Farmers and Salmon Fishermen Fight for Water." National Fisherman 90.5 (2009): 13.ProQuest. Web. 27 Sep 2015.<http://search.proquest.com/docview/211489113OpenUrlRefId=info:xri/sid:summon&accountid=12725>.

The purpose of this article is to convince the audience that more water needs to be put into the deltas because it is leaving farmers and fishermen without jobs. The author uses economical statistics and quotes from specific sources for evidence to his main claim. He starts by saying that California is in a $24 billion budget deficit from the three years that is has been in a drought and this has also caused farmers and fishermen to be in debt, as well. He then provides the audience with a quote from Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association saying that, “Salmon fishermen have been out of work for two years now because of the total closure of the fishery.” The author then states that Grader has appointed Deputy Interior David J. Hayes with $160 million for Recovery Funds. The author then provides the farmers side of the argument with giving a quote from Christina S. Johnson saying that farmers want the “two gates” plan which provides removable gates on the delta to prevent smelt from being caught in the pumping systems of the irrigation machines. This article relates because it gives information about the total cost that the drought has cost the state and the effect that it has had on the economy. It also relates to the extinction of the delta smelt.

Delta Smelt
Pic by Pacific Southwest Region USFWS

                       
Connon, Richard. "Sublethal Responses to Ammonia Exposure in the Endangered Delta Smelt; Hypomesus Transpacificus (Fam. Osmeridae)."Sublethal Responses to Ammonia Exposure in the Endangered Delta Smelt; Hypomesus Transpacificus (Fam. Osmeridae). 1 Oct. 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.< http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166445X11001949>.

The authors main claim is to prove that the delta smelt, hypomesus transpacificus, is an endangered fish species and they are important because they indicate how healthy the environment they live in is. Richard Connon proves this through researching why the population has declined and then examined the changes in the smelt when exposed to ammonia, affect of their genes with changes to the cell membrane, and neurological and muscular damage, and lastly the effects of the cell membrane that prove multiple-contaminant exposure. By doing these studies who figured out which specific factors increase and decrease the mortality of the smelt. This study can help other scientists figure out how to save the smelt and find other solutions to get through the California drought.


Baerwald, Melinda. "TaqMan Assays for the Genetic Identification of Delta Smelt (Hypomesus Transpacificus) and Wakasagi Smelt (Hypomesus Nipponensis)." - BAERWALD. 28 Mar. 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2015. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-0998.2011.03011.x/abstract>.

Baerwald claims that she has developed a way to specifically determine the difference between the species of the delta smelt and the wakasagi smelt. This identification system is 100% accurate and is expected to be used in future scientific studies on genetic species identification. This identification system will help take surveys and experiments on the true population of the delta smelt. By being able to have valid information on the population, scientists will be able to have accurate data and find ways to protect the delta smelt. Eventually this system will provide scientists a way to overcome the drought and fix the unemployment of farmers and fishermen in California.

Unit 2 Annotated Bibliography

“Driving Test: ‘Gene drive’ techniques have the potential to alter whole populations. Regulators 

must catch up.” Nature 524.7563. 4 Aug. 2015. Print. http://www.nature.com/news/driving-test-1.18118

A gene drive is a new technique that is able to alter entire populations. It will be able to achieve the removal of malaria-carrying mosquitos and threats by invasive species. This technique has been made possible by the new, affordable CRISPR technology that allows precise genetic engineering. Researchers and regulators should be sure to be thorough before allowing this method of genetic engineering to be used.

Esvelt, Kevin M., Andrea L. Smidler, Flaminia Catteruccia, and George M. Church. “Concerning
RNA-guided gene drives for the alteration of wild populations.” eLife. 17 Jul. 2014. Print. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4117217/

This is a very thorough source that describes the evolutionary stability that will be affected in the event of an unnatural gene drive. It discusses limitations, safeguards, reversibility and many other topics that will need to be considered before a gene drive should be advised. It argues that it is very important to explore every factor before pursuing the use of a gene drive. Biological systems are so hard to predict that it is extremely difficult to understand the possible repercussions that could come with this sort of tampering with the environment. 

Ledford, Heidi. “CRISPR, the disruptor.” Nature 522.7554. 3 Jul. 2015. Print. http://www.nature.com/news/crispr-the-disruptor-1.17673
This article describes the new, amazing gene drive technology, CRISPR. It is affordable, quick, and easy to use unlike many of the past methods of genetic engineering. The author says that there is a lot that still has to be done before CRISPR can be safely used. With this new technology it will be possible to edit disease of out a genome.


Oye, Kenneth A., et al. “Regulating Gene Drives.” Science 345.6197 (8 Aug. 2014): 626-628.
Print. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6197/626.full
This source presents the limitations of gene drives as well as some of the risks. Because gene drives are carried out through sexual reproduction, they will not be effective in altering bacterial and viral populations. A gene drive also takes multiple generations to be carried out and that can mean waiting a long time for species with long life expectancies and long developmental periods. This source also discusses some of the issues relating to regulatory problems with gene drives. Because it is such a new and booming technology, CRISPR has not yet been properly regulated.


Webber, Bruce L, Raghu, S., and Edwards, Owain R. “Opinion: Is CRISPR-based gene drive a
biocontrol silver bullet or global conservation threat?” PNAS 112.34. N.d. Print. http://www.pnas.org/content/112/34/10565.full
This article explores what could possibly happen as a result of gene drives. It is sure to describe the precision and incredible ability of the CRISPR technique of genetic engineering, but it also lists many risks for this new technology. PNAS references events from the past and non-target issues can also be impacted. It warns that causing the extinction of species is dangerous and that combatting invasive species could not be worth the other ecological consequences.

End the Death Penalty Annotated Bibliography

CHRISTOPHER DOMBRES

Okay, I understand that this will not be the funnest thing to read, but annotated bibliographies are very important to writing. Annotated bibliographies are summarizations of sources you want to use. These summaries include what the author is saying, important facts; annotated bibliographies helps organize how sources fit in with each other and helps make a thoughtful and all-puttogether essay. 

Bearman2007

Marris, Emma. "DNA Tests Put Death Penalty Under Fire." Nature 439.7073 (2006): 126-7. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2015.

This affirms and substantiates my claim that that the death penalty should be gotten rid of all together. The author argues that the death penalty is extremely unethical. He substantiates this by using examples of wrongly accused victims that were put to death because of lack of DNA testing and wrongful DNA testing. An interesting point that this author makes is that with today’s technology DNA can still get it wrong because of contamination or malice. This author argues that if we are to implement the death penalty, everyone tried has the right to have DNA tested for a second or a third time.






Buchen, Lizzie. "ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT." Nature 484.7394 (2012): 304-6. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2015.

This affirms that the death penalty should not be given the teenagers. The author uses neuroscience to determine that teenagers should not be hold full responsibility for actions they commit when they are teenagers because during teenage years their brain develops and they are like “A car with great acceleration and terrible breaks.” The author also states that teenagers should not be given life sentences because of this fact, because as teenagers mature they develop how to control emotions, urges, and if they are put away for life, society misses out on important individuals. This document sanctions who is eligible for the death penalty.

Will medics' qualms kill the death penalty? (2006). Nature, 441(7089), 8-9. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/441008a

This document affirms that the death penalty is unethical and current methods are outdated. The author states that the death penalty is a breach of the doctoral oath, “do no harm.” The author states that the death penalty is unethical because no research has been done to improve upon methods used in 30 years and that too many inmates either die fully conscious while the lethal injections kill them or too many are botched. Because of this the medical community does not support the practice of capital punishment and are taking steps to eradicate the practice altogether. This provides a good perspective from the medical community and helps substantiates the argument that the death penalty should be eradicated using facts and ethics.


Woolston, C. (2013). Death row incurs drug penalty. Nature, 502(7472), 417-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1458304326?accountid=12725

This document is a good perspective on world views of the death penalty. The document states that German pharmaceutical companies are circumventing death penalties by controlling where a certain anesthetic goes. The companies will only allow for the drug propofol to go to US hospitals and not US prisons. These actions is a good example of the european nations stance on anitdeath-penalty. This document builds upon the other documents because it provides world perspective and how other countries control what americans do.


Reardon, S. (2014). SMART ENOUGH TO DIE? Nature, 506(7488), 284-286. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1504540397?accountid=12725

This document argues who is eligible to die. This document builds upon the document about teenagers because while it take an anti-death penalty stance, it defines which individuals should not be killed. The author argues that if a person is found guilty for first-degree murder they are ineligible for the death penalty if they have mental disabilities. IQ testing has been used to put many prisoners to death, and there is no standards for IQ minimums and there is a lot of corruption. The author includes a powerful quote that emphasizes the ridiculousness of these methods stating that, "We cannot reduce the life of a human being to a single number."

HIV Cure Annotated Bibliography

Chun, Tae-Wook, Susan Moir, and Anthony S. Fauci. "HIV Reservoirs as Obstacles and Opportunities for an HIV Cure." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 19 May 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

The author claims that the HIV reservoir is the primary obstacle when it comes to the hopes of eliminating the virus completely. These reservoirs also pose a problem for therapeutic methods of attaining a cure. Currently the main combatant against the HIV virus is the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART), however while it does extend lifespan it is required that the patients will need life-long treatment. The use of ART has been a huge step towards finding the cure to HIV it is not the most ideal due to the problems that, the use of these various medicine cocktails in ART are toxic and affect the users in life-long therapy, and the HIV reservoirs persistence.

Fauci, Anthony S. "Feasibility and Discovery of an HIV Cure." JAMA Network. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 23 July 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

The author claims that finding an alternative method of treatment is imperative if we hope to find a cure. Similarly, to the previous source, the author states that due to the toxicity and necessity of life-long treatment when using ART that an alternative method is required. This author references some experimental procedures that have been used in the past and so far have seemed to eradicate the virus. However, the author does state that the experiment used in this case has a very high mortality and while the patient is currently HIV free, the person did end up with leukemia. All in all, this source says that alternative methods are feasible, but more testing and research is needed to be able to implement these discoveries effectively.

Hladik, Florian. "A New Hypothesis on HIV Cure." F1000Research. F1000Research, 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

This author claims that nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) could possibly prevent the HIV cure. This is because these NRTIs promote survival of the integrated provirus. NRTIs are in the antiretroviral therapy treatments that people receive, so like the previous authors, this one claims that ART is no longer the hope for the cure, but rather it is possibly only prolonging the virus. ART is extremely effective at containing the virus however it has shown that these NRTIs within the ART may be increasing the persistence of the cells which is one of the main obstacles. The author also states that the only patient ever cured of HIV discontinued treatments before beginning other antiviral therapies. In conclusion the author says that finding a different way to contain HIV and thereby suppressing it with a method that does not contain NRTIs could be the cure we have been looking for.

Ledford, Heidi. "HIV Rebound Dashes Hope of 'Mississippi Baby' Cure." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 10 July 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

This article is mainly informative however an argument can be found within. The author is reporting on the condition of what is a now four-year-old girl in Mississippi who was previously thought to have been cured of HIV. She received ART starting at 30 hours and it was discontinued at 18 months. She then remained off these drugs for 27 months with no signs of the virus. However, she has no rebounded and doctors are curious as to why. A clinical trial was beginning to start up where they would see if this method would work again, however not that she has rebounded it may possibly be disbanded before any patients participate. Apparently the Mississippi girl’s spinal fluid and tissue samples were never looked at within those 72 months so it is up for debate on whether this is something that needs to be implemented in this trial or if it needs to be discontinued all together. The author seems to side with the idea early and aggressive treatments should be continued.

"The HIV Epidemic Can Be Stopped." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 7 July 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

This author takes a different viewpoint than every other article found and its information will serve as a counter example so I can inform people of all sides of the topic. This author says that ART is the way to the cure and currently the United Nations is looking at revising its policy in order to allow ART as soon as someone tests positive for the virus. Here he states that if it were to start earlier then the disease could be managed. However, this article never does state that this is a cure but rather a stop to the epidemic. The hope here is that everyone infected can be treated to the point that the number of new infections and cases goes down to zero. Its not so much of a cure but as a preventative measure, preventing all new cases so when the old ones expire HIV/AIDS is no longer in the world.

Citations Post

Citing sources is important because in most cases, we do not have all of the information we need to write the various papers and blog posts. We receive a majority of our information from alternate sources and when this is done it’s important that we credit these people. They have done the work to create whatever outlet that we found the information, and because they did this we are now able to create our, in this case, blog post.

We as a group feel that the best way to cite these sources is through the MLA format. It is the most commonly used and in our opinion the most efficient way to cite a source. In this case the author’s name will appear in last name first, first name last order. Following this will be the title of the source, the place in which it was published and or created, and then the year with the medium. A medium is the type of source being used, in our case it will most likely be a web source. The reason we chose this citation style is that it is the one we are all the most familiar with and made the most sense to use. It has a nice clean format to it and is not entirely difficult to put together.

Rhetorical Analysis of North Carolina Charm

Photo by Vinoth Chandar

Christina Marcellino, the author of Carolina Charm, writes this blog to inform the audience about her personal life as well as give advice to other “wanna-be southern belles” on how to be a great mother and wife through articles about do-it-yourself projects, home-made southern recipes, and blog posts about her “Southern Affair” wedding and charming children. She does this by writing about her personal life, targeting a specific audience, and the distinct layout that she uses to create organization and accessibility through her blog. 

The author of Carolina Charm, Christina, presents herself on the homepage of the blog. She posts a picture of herself and writes a small description of who she is to introduce herself to the audience. The picture that she uses fits her theme exactly by using a wooden frame border around her bridal portrait. By doing this, the author introduces to the audience that her blog is about a southern, tea-loving, and home-oriented woman. Christina also creates credibility and advertises her blog by having social media share buttons above her introduction that allow the audience to share her blog on Facebook, Twitter, text message, Pinterest, Instagram, and Bloglovin’. She also creates credibility because she is writing a blog about her own life. She has posts about her marriage, children, personal recipes, and d.i.y. projects. Not only does Christina have valid proof that her articles are true, she also provides several pictures within each article that provides more believability to the audience that her posts are accurate. Christina has chosen a logo for her blog that has Carolina Charm written in a girly, cursive font and is at the top of the website. Under the logo, the author posts a saying that says "tales of a wanna-be southern belle," restating the fact of her perfect southern lifestyle. I think the author chose the title Carolina Charm because it describes the stereotypical characteristics of the charm and charisma of a southern woman who is married with children. For each post throughout the whole blog, you can read the full post without having to extend the content of that particular blog. Although, at the bottom of each post, there is a button where the audience can view a post that is similar to the post they are currently reading. So the author made these choices for her page so she could have credibility, advertisement, easy accessibility, and consistent organization throughout her entire blog. 

Carolina Charm is targeted toward young southern women who are just starting to settle down, get married, and have children. The audience of this blog share common characteristics of most likely being a woman, middle-aged (25-35), white, and southern. The audience is probably married and has children. The author posts several recipes throughout her blog so therefore her target audience cooks and more specifically cooks southern food for their families. The audience probably share the values of the life of a "southern-charm" and a conservative life, where a southern girl meets the man of her dreams, gets married, and lives happily ever after. The audience would probably disagree about having a child without getting married. They might also disagree about other liberal issues.

The key rhetorical features of a typical post on this blog would consist of first the document design. In almost every post, the title is in the same font and has a white background. The author then introduces the subject to the audience and then has many pictures that follow the story to explain what her subject was about. At the end of every blog, there is a section where the audience can leave a comment using their name, email and input, therefore creating involvement for the audience. The organization of each post is basically the same because of the short introduction to the subject that is normally about 2 or 3 paragraphs. Following the introduction is the many pictures that typically have captions between each one. The author is persuading the readers to believe that they should find the man of their dreams, get married, and have a picturesque family. The author is also persuading the audience to become the perfect housewife, who stays at home with her kids and cooks full course "southern" meals every night, while still having an occupation of working a small amount of hours at a law firm. She supports her arguments with pictures that show her life accomplishments. The author also writes in first person, which is expected since she is talking about her personal life. She makes some interesting in-text formatting choices. The author sometimes writes words in all capital letters or she will add some extra exclamation points at the end of a sentence. Her purpose for doing this is to give the blog some more personality or make a topic seem more exciting or fun without having to add busy, bright colors or big, bold images. Her choice of color for the logo and some of the social media links is very tame. She chooses a light brown and a softer green to kind of make the blog have a homier, natural feel. This makes the author seem more down-to-earth which is a very important trait for a southern woman to have.

Christina meets several intellectual standards throughout Carolina Charm but the most distinct would be significance and clarity. She exhibits the standard of relevance by having her whole blog relate to a certain topic of the life of a southern-belle. There is not any information in her articles that are unimportant or irrelevant to the blog as a whole. She writes in a rustic and simple way, which relates to the overall theme of her blog. Christina also uses clarity in her blog by having organization and consistency in every article and having the home icons at the top of the blog, so there is easy accessibility. Unfortunately, she does not use fairness in Carolina Charm because she is trying to persuade the audience to think and do like she does. Therefore, she does not treat all sides alike without reference to one’s own feelings or interest. It is evident that Christina is conservative and she thinks that everybody should be like her as well. Even though she only posts conservative articles, she does not put down liberals in any of her posts. Overall, Christina did a good job of including the intellectual standards into her blog.

Christina uses the layout of her blog and her own personal investment in each article to accomplish the goal of informing and advising the target audience on being a great, southern-loving mother and wife.

Exploring the Rhetorical Styles of visitRaleigh

Image by James Willamor

The blog, visitRaleigh, is a travel guide that gives tourists and locals helpful information about the social scene in Raleigh, NC. It provides all kinds of interesting activities for a wide range of adults to experience. This blog, found here: http://www.visitraleigh.com/blog/,

shares information about what happens day to day in Raleigh and connects people to these events. This purpose is achieved through the series of rhetorical choices visitRaleigh’s authors have made. Some of these choices include author presentation, target audience, and helpful features.

The authors present themselves with a great deal of subtlety in the text of their articles. For the most part the authors leave out an individual voice so that the events, restaurants, and venues speak for themselves. Outside of the text, they present themselves as credible writers who know all about the city at the heart of their blog. They are self-proclaimed “Insiders,” and the majority of them are from the Raleigh area. By making themselves appear to be in-the-know about underground events they make themselves more credible and recreate Raleigh to appear more chic and enticing to the reader. Author Emma Witman writes very little about herself which makes her appear more mysterious, while others list much more to make them relatable and approachable. They keep distinct voices out of the articles and strive mainly to make the topics of their articles seem alluring and exciting while still sharing their individual characteristics. This strategy makes visitRaleigh seem multifaceted with a vast range of opinions from diverse personalities. 

This blog targets an audience that ranges from young to middle-aged adults. Most of the activities listed on visitRaleigh are at breweries, restaurants, bars, or other venues that cater to a more mature audience. They also list museums, art exhibits, and other cultural hubs that appeal to deeper thinkers that have money to spend on weekend activities. Because of the cost of some of the events the blog the authors lean toward targeting more of a middle class audience. Lastly, visitRaleigh targets those who hold culture in high esteem. All of the events are within Raleigh and appeal to those who have an appreciation for the southern-city culture. They have fresh foods, local bands, and cater to those who want to support small businesses.

The authors have added specific key features to every part of the blog in order to help achieve their purpose. The text of visitRaleigh is absolutely covered in links. When reading a description of an event, the reader will often find several links that will lead them to the information they didn’t know they were looking for. There are many other tools that the authors have created for the readers’ convenience. Some of these include mapping tools and tools that allow readers to sign up for the events listed. The authors also offer social media tools to help their readers to connect with friends and let them know about the new, cool events they are attending. A big part of the goal of visitRaleigh is to make getting out and being social convenient for the people in Raleigh or those who are visiting and may not know what Raleigh has to offer them. They can share what they are doing very easily through these social media outlets.

Apart from tools and ways for the blog readers to be connected in a quick, convenient way, the authors take the time to make sure the text accurately reflects their overall purpose; which is to excite the reader about life in Raleigh. They use thrilling diction to describe the events and places that they want to lure readers to. These authors make sure to use words such as “breaking” and “can’t miss” to describe the topics of their articles. These types of words excite the reader rather than letting the article be strictly factual as someone would normally expect from an informational piece of writing. Instead of lumping everything together, the authors also split up their writing into small paragraphs which makes the information more accessible. Some words are bolded to make them stand out which adds to the quick and convenient theme of visitRaleigh. They often use exclamation points to once again highlight how exciting Raleigh can be. These bloggers recognize the importance of using textual formatting to help out their readers.

The final feature that the authors include is interviewing. The authors will interview a musician or an artist about their work to enhance their credibility and to make their readers feel more connected to an event in that they feel like they already know someone there.

Intellectual standards are a list of guidelines that spell out the important qualities needed for successful problem-solving or examination. This blog does an admirable job of upholding the intellectual standards of breadth and clarity. Breadth refers to a wide range or extent and visitRaleigh covers a multitude of categories that could potentially interest Raleigh visitors. This blog describes and advocates all manners of activities from art culture to food to music and even finds activities for “adrenaline junkies.” It highlights opportunities that may be expensive and also activities that are free. There really is something for everyone at visitRaleigh. Clarity refers to the quality of being easy to see and in this case the quality of being easy to understand. The authors should be proud of how clear they have made their blog. The information is written in a concise, easily comprehensive, and helpful manner. Because of their tendency to make important topics bold and to separate out paragraphs to divide different ideas, a reader can find the information they need without having to dig through some ambiguous writing that is unimportant to them. 

Though it is successful in many ways, visitRaleigh does lack a few key components that all blogs should be sure to have. While most blogs are overflowing with content, this one seems to be lacking in the quantity of posts. There seem to be, on average, one to two posts in each category per month. For someone who is looking for something new to do on the weekend, this is not enough information, and visitRaleigh will not cut it for them. It also does not have the most appropriate logo and banner. The combination of colors appear almost cartoonish and the logo is something that a customer would expect to see for a cell-phone or computer company. The banner implies that on visitRaleigh a reader will be connected to things like sports, learning, and art, but it appears almost school-like rather than being aesthetic and appealing. 

visitRaleigh acts as a gateway between those who do not know how to find events and the events that are sometimes harder to find. The main purpose of visitRaleigh is to share quick, easy-to-access information and to help their readers connect with friends and family over social media. The authors don’t want their readers to waste time digging around and trying to find the next big event in Raleigh, they instead want to help them connect to an event efficiently so that they can get out and have fun ASAP. They are very successful in making their readers feel connected to the city they want to explore and to making Raleigh an exciting and alluring place to be.

Nautilus Rhetorical Analysis

Science is constantly moving and innovating and science news websites and blogs keep it’s reader up to date in new theories, technology, and other things related to science. Nautilus is a blog and magazine that was created in 2013 and has received many awards including the Webby Award, the award for general excellence, and best website. The authors of Nautilus uses strong analysis, beautiful formatting, and comprehensive research to inform the public of science news. This is probably the coolest blog I have ever read and it is a breathtaking website to look at, (it has gotten a dozen awards for its illustrations from the American Illustration, Spectrum, and the Society of Illustrators.)

The authors of Nautilus present themselves in a very professional way. There are two sets of committees. There are one set of authors and then there are a board of advisors. The board of advisors state their names, field of study, and where they attended college, (and most are from Ivy league schools.) This gives them so much credibility because graduates of Ivy league schools are considered to be among one of the most skilled and intellectual individuals in the human race, and to have a gaggle of individuals writing and advising the blog makes Nautilus a somewhat scholarly blog. Underneath the authors names Nautilus also gives the names of all of its financial supporters, which include the the John Templeton foundation, Simons foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This adds credibility to the authors because what they do is obviously good enough or considered important enough to be funded.

This blog does a phenomenal job of not excluding any literate adult from their target audience. As I mentioned previously the blog is overseen by many qualified individuals, however the blog is written in a way that is very easy to understand. Anyone over the age of 15ish is able to read this easily because it is worded in simplistic and scholarly way. In the blog post there are many pictures and videos to look at that will help anyone understand the concept stated in the texts. Anyone can read this blog because the authors do such a comprehensive job on covering all subjects relating to science. However the audience who read this blog will have some interest in the sciences.

The authors of Nautilus use question and answer responses to get information to the readers. This allows the articles to have an almost conversational feel. It allows the text to read easily and almost evokes the reader to think and ask questions about the text. They also use information from scholarly and relevant sources. This add credibility to each article, because they use credible facts to support statements in each blog post.

As I have stated earlier, this blog is so scholarly, it's magnificently scholarly. The authors use each intellectual standard so well. The blog is so easy to read and all of the arguments are very clearly stated and are accurate. The authors often explore all sides of the issue at hand and use scholarly sources and statements from people who are involved to give depth to the blog posts. Using these methods leads to clear logic that is easily followed; And incredibly there is little to no bias that I can detect. So with all of these intellectual standards followed to a ‘T’, it makes Nautilus an extremely reliable source to cite from. I think this blog is as reliable as other news sources such as NPR. I would personally respect anyone who read this blog.

In conclusion, Nautilus is hands down the best science blog I have ever read. The blog is dedicated to giving its readers news that asks real life, pertinent questions to come to solutions to today’s biggest issues. Along with being incredibly scholarly being beautiful to look at, the authors of Nautilus extends invitations to science fanatics of all types in the hopes of making this world a better place through science. 

A Rhetorical Analysis of The New York Times

Medicine, without it we would die. It is considered to be a necessity in the world today, and it is constantly evolving. With all of the change and innovation in today’s times there are few ways in which we as people can keep up. One of the most invaluable sources of information are blogs. In the recent years they have been gaining a lot of traction with the new generation, generally they contain short posts on the constantly changing environment cutting through the nonsense and getting straight to the point. A blog that I will be talking about in particularly is http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/. This is by far one of the best blogs I have ever read when in terms of health and wellness. It provides an overall coverage of the topic ranging from family issues to the body and its ever changing landscape.

The various bloggers cover a multitude of issues in clear and concise formats that are appealing to the eye and draw the readers in.  The authors themselves are all well-rounded in many different areas of wellness. For example, one author named Nicholas Bakalar has composed pieces in areas such as the mind, parenting, the body, and food. I have read articles from each of these different sections and he presents his facts in a way that does not mislead. He only states as much as he knows and makes it known that any conclusions that he draws are based upon current research or the few studies that he, himself has looked at. By doing this he creates credibility for himself because it allows the reader to trust that they are getting the most accurate information for the time in which they are being presented, obviously things can change as time progresses and new discoveries occur but the point of a blog, or at least this one that is, is to get the most up to date stories and news to the public.

With a topic like health and wellness the blog’s audience is a wide range of individuals. It is for people are just generally health conscious to those who are medicine junkies. By this I mean they are always up to date with the constantly changing environment and latest medical breakthroughs/setbacks, not that they are addicts to any medicines. There are articles that range from how exercise affects your brain to doctors contemplating if they hastened a patient’s death. This makes generalizing an audience difficult, however if I had to I would say that the audience is in the age range of mid 20’s to early 40’s. They are mix of both genders and races, who lie somewhere within the middle class due to the fact that this is the New York Times and as a whole that is who I feel they are targeting.

The aspects of the text that help to gain such an audience and generate return customers are a combination of the layout, reader interactivity, and consistent up to date news on anything and everything that relates to the various subcategories of health and wellness. The layout of the page is very simple yet efficient. It is a basic, white layout that uses aspects of color to draw the reader’s eye to the articles themselves. Also every article has an associated picture to go along with it, when looking at some of them you want to read the article just to find out why that picture was used. For example, one article is entitled Antibiotic Use Tied to Diabetes Risk and the associated picture is a die. In terms of reader interactivity, in the “Doctors” section they have a post called Think Like a Doctor. In these posts they describe a case and leave it to the readers to determine what is wrong with the person or what caused a certain situation to arise. Then on the following day they post the answer with a fully explained diagnosis of what the person has or what happened to them and all about that disease or condition. Personally I plan on returning monthly to solve the mystery (or at least try to that is). The variety of subcategories is also a huge part of the text. With most medical blogs you will find they are highly specialized which in some cases can scare readers off because if they are not experts in everything related to surgery for example, then they will be completely lost. Here the readers receive general knowledge on just about everything and anything they would want to know. They have sections in the body, the mind, food, fitness, love, family, doctors, voices, and even pets. It covers topics in relation to current events and how that can affect individuals both physically and mentally. One article speaks on gay parents and the worries they may have with their kids going back to school in terms of something dubbed by the author as “microaggressions”. Another thing this site does very well is that they always tie the articles back to people and explain how it affects the public rather than just stating some random facts leaving readers to think why this information is being presented to them.

When it comes to intellectual standards of critical and creative thinking set forth by some institutions there are two done very well by this site. It follows both relevance and depth. This site is able to stay consistent with its theme and always ties all of the different blog posts back to the topic of health and wellness. The articles are all of a similar style and it helps to keep a consistent tone throughout and make all of the articles have a similar feel. All of these different things help this site retain its relevance. When it comes to depth, as I have previously said this site has a lot of different topics however I feel that no matter how short the posts are, the bloggers almost always go into the topic they are covering and try to get to the heart of the matter explaining why what they are writing about matters and the aspects that go into it.

Keeping all of this in mind though, this site is not without flaw. While it is nice to see authors cover a wide variety of topics, I wish there were more authors solely focused on one category. This would add a nice variation to the blog with some of the articles containing more specialized information and perhaps tying multiple articles together. This would also help for the blog to reach a wider audience, giving the people who already have a vast knowledge on topics such as the ones covered something else to learn rather than just general facts of what’s changing in the world.