My ideal writing space

After being sick for quite sometime, I have gotten a bit better and have finally attempted my rough draft. As I pondered what I would look for in photos of an ideal writing space, I saw the light, that is sunlight. I would find a sunny spot that is green with life as my mind works best in areas outdoors. I write outside and enjoy doing so this way as I can move around. 

Writing a Visual Rhetoric Paper With a Unique Theme and Blogging

Blogging has been a new experience which I have enjoyed thus far. I feel like the main aspect of my writing that I wish to improve is making my sentences longer. I do like choppy sentences for they are clear when making a point. Still longer sentences would help create flow in my blogs and in my writing. So far, I have struggled addressing the theme of the visual rhetoric paper, which is the theme of home. I feel like home is a vague idea and place. I have difficulty making home universal in my paper as I feel people will have a difficult time understanding my sense of home as I do not even have a clear sense of what home is. Difficulty in addressing home is also accompanied by the difficulty in addressing the idea of home as an important theme. I do not know how to incorporate home into my paper. 

Ethics and Academic Integrity

                Ethics for me are a set of beliefs from which I censor my thinking and action.  Ethics are moral beliefs and help people be at peace with one another. I learned how to be ethical from my mother and father and also from my religion.   I learned at a very early age to not eat meat and to be strictly vegetarian as killing other living things was considered wrong in my religion especially when done for selfish purposes. When I was a bit older, the concept of non-violence was instilled in me by my religion, and this proved to be a long lasting practice that I indeed came to love.  

                Academic integrity is another ethical practice in which students must gain integrity by engendering work that was not made by cheating or through the use of plagiarism. One must work to maintain the code of his or her school and honesty. The following list has some of the things I would consider a breach of Academic integrity.

1.       Giving my friend work that I did so he could finish his on work by rephrasing mine.

a.       Receiving completed work and using it as a work of my own.

2.       Taking someone else’s work and using it in my work without giving the other person any credit.

3.       Paraphrasing the using the high school method of rearranging words.

4.       Using a paper from another student.

5.       Citing something in a paper in the citations page but not having anything in the paper form that source that was cited.

                

Thesis Statement plus Q&A

Questions and Answers

1. Write down your observations

1.a. This image focuses on the lack of conformity amongst the way different socioeconomic classes are treated. The image represents U.S. wealth as a pie; the pie is not given out equally therefore indicating that the wealth of the U.S. is unequally distributed. The government is represented by a elephant who also serves to emphasize the republican political party. The blacks in the image are portrayed as poor while the whites characters seem to be better off. The amount of of children that are with each class serve to emphasize the need lower classes possess as they must feed more children.

2. Work with your observations to construct a preliminary thesis statement.

2.a. There is a blunt inquality amongst three adults in an image representing different social classes.

3.Refine your argument by asking questions that make your statement less general.

3.a. What does the picture really mean? How does it use rhetoric to make the user feel emotions. What emotions does the picture invoke. When was this picture significant or is it still applicable to current day society?

4.Revise your preliminary thesis statement to be more specific; perhaps include specific evidence that drives your claim.

4.a The image presented focuses on the differences amongst how people are treated by the government by showing that Americans expect to much from the government and by showing that the government favors higher classes as the higher class people in the image receive more from the government.

5. Further polish your thesis by refining your language and asking questions about the implications of your working thesis statement.

5.a. Why does the government treat people differently if the government wants money from all classes?  Can the governments actions be rationalized? How do the poor differ from the rich besides in money and assets? Why are Americans unappreciative and how does this apply to the Image?

6.Write your working thesis to include a sense of the implications of your claim.  Sometimes we call this the "So What?" of your claim.

6.a(ACTUAL THESIS)  The image presented offers a pointed  juxtaposition of three distinct social classes while also showing the stark differences between how each social class is treated by the government. The people of the United States want more from their government but fail to see that they are the ones at fault as 21st America is unappreciative of what it has.

Three Images

 In this image, the cartoonist is trying to show the difference among Romney and Obama supporters. The cartoonist is targeting politically aware individuals and voters. The photo seems to argue that the people who work hard want to vote for Romney. In the picture these people are being whipped and also being forced to pull the load of the Obama crowd behind them. The picture indicates how much democratic people want to rely on the government for help. The home shown in this picture is the Whitehouse. The people are going towards the Whitehouse as they fight for the win.

In this image, a powerful elephant is seen helping the rich while the middle class and poor watch with envy. The poor have certain characteristics that differentiate them from the higher classes. The fact that the poor family is black helps to distinguish is social class. This cartoon is targeted towards all Americans even though it was drawn by a foreigner. The text is very simple and functions well to add a since of unfairness to the image as the elephant asks the rich man if he wants whipped cream with his pie or U.S. wealth.  The picture argues that inequality is ever present in America and should be looked at critically instead of passively. Home in this image is simply the American dream. I feel like contentment with what one has is the ultimate message of this cartoon.

 This picture is a harsh look at America’s addiction to oil. The statue of liberty is desecrated as she is portrayed as an addict who shoots up. America is the statue of liberty while Iraqi oil is the drug that makes America fall. The audience this image is targeting are families that rely on gasoline for transportation who also lack sufficient funds to live a certain lifestyle. The text of this image is a bit funny in a way as it is almost lighthearted if one were to look at the reality of war for oil. The price of a fix keeps going up is the main phrase that makes this image send its message which is that people must break off from oil and go to other resources to do the job oil does. The home seen in this photo is another oil fix. Home for the U.S. and being content means just having enough oil to get through another day.

About Me: Vijay Kerai

              My name is Vijay Kerai and I am rising sophomore majoring in Computer Engineering. My major is sitting on sand as I do not really know what I want to do for the rest of my life. I am on a mission to try and find my place in the place I currently call home, Campobello, a small town in upstate South Carolina. I really like diversity and feel that diversity makes life glow and gives life color. I have made a goal. I want to learn how to listen. This is part of my inner vision of what I want to accomplish as a college student. Listening to others leads to understanding and this is what helps me understand diversity. I love the appreciative feeling I get when I learn something from someone that I really didn’t expect to really understand.

                Where do we feel most at home? I believe people all have different preferences for what they enjoy to compose. The setting of home for composition should be warm and familiar. I think writers feel secure when they are in a familiar setting that is calm.

                What does it mean when you feel at home? I think feeling at home really means to attain a level of tranquility both in the physical self and in the mental self. Feeling at home means that ideas flow harmoniously, the hand and fingers move swiftly, and the individual feels at ease. When I feel at home, I feel a since of security and this helps my level of confidence with whatever I am composing. Literally feeling at home means that I feel accepted and feel that those around me understand me well.

                When communicating, expressing and composing, what medium or style do you feel most at home? I feel the medium of music to be my most secure and swift style of communication and composition. I can express what I need to in a way that is vague in specific understanding yet is also blunt in meaning. Emotions are the true indicator of what medium is the best for expressing life. I am talking about performance of music after writing a musical composition, this way of communicating emotion is the most true to me. I feel at home with music and feel as I can coexist with musical notes in harmony.