Wrapping It All Up

Is it here already? The end of the semester? Wow. It really does not seem that long ago when I first sat down in Daniel 211 on a sunny Wednesday morning near the end of August. What a young teacher, I thought to myself. This will be interesting. It sure would be. Three projects, 14 blog posts and 15 weeks later, I can say I have successfully made it through English 103. Miss Charlsie is still young and I'm still a naive freshman here at Clemson. But she's not as young, and I'm not as naive. A lot has changed since that morning in August. I can now successfully navigate my way all around our beautiful campus, and I've adjusted significantly to life out from under my parent's roof. The workload? Overall, I'd say I've adapted pretty well, but I've still got a lot to learn. Seven semesters, if all goes as planned.

So let's get the meat of this post. "400-500 words of your reflection of the course as a whole, a personal note to say what worked best for you and what failed..." Where do I start? It looks like this post could easily degrade into another one of those where I talk about my emotions. Still don't quite have that whole idea down quite yet...let's see where we end up.
Since this course really isn't too involved, it is appropriate for graduate students to teach and, of course, this was the case in my class. I really like the idea of graduate students teaching the course as it sort of allows students to interact with one of their teachers on more of a peer-to-peer basis than a high-and-lofty-professor-to-student basis. I mean, what conventional professor would Skype their student through Facebook to talk about a rough draft? That was pretty cool. I think the interactive student-teacher experience was the most valuable facet of the course.
Overall I enjoyed the class. I would cut the readings and would have had Charlsie make breakfast more, but other than that I can't complain. (Don't pay attention to the breakfast reference. I really enjoyed those muffins on the three occasions we were lucky enough to get them.)
So I guess that's that. Maybe in closing it would be best to draw in a quote from my very first post, composed on August 26: "Hopefully by this time in four months I will be able to distinguish more clearly between good and bad reasoning as well as sharpen my own skills of persuasion." Fortunately for me, I would say the class has caused me to accomplish just that.

Project Update

It's so close. The end of my first semester in college. One-eigth of the way through my undergraduate career. Everyone says it goes by fast, but you really have to experience it for yourself. They're right. Fast. But before I start packing my bags, there are quite a few items left to accomplish to wrap up this semester. One of these is the English Multimedia Project. Since our team of four lives in four different states, we accomplished nothing over Thanksgiving. I don't regret that. We all needed the break. But this past week has been...eventful.
To record a proper description of all we've done this week, I will break up the narrative according to days of the week. Read on.
Monday: At around 9:15, the four of us met in the dining hall to discuss our plans and to assign jobs to each team member. Alex wrote up five questions for students and five questions for faculty, to be asked in video interviews. I rented a Bloggie videocamera from the library.
Tuesday: I interviewed four freshmen students in General Engineering. Since I live in the RISE (Resident in Science and Engineering) program, finding fellow engineering students was easy.
Wednesday: Our team met with Charlsie at 9:30 to update her on the progress of the project and to iron out any misunderstandings and confusions.
Thursday: Originally, we had planned to have Alex and Andy interview the General Engineering faculty Wednesday afternoon, but since Alex had a math exam to take Wednesday evening the interviews were postponed to Thursday. Alex brought up the point that we need two or three students to rebut the faculty's responses, and Andy said that we will also require input from upperclassmen engineering students who have taken CES. What did they think of the course? Looking back, was it beneficial? Why or why not? Was CES helpful in choosing an engineering specialty? If they could do it over again would they take CES? Why or why not? Alex conducted the rebuttal interviews Thursday night.
Friday: In class, Alex passed off the camera to Adrain to conduct the upperclassmen interviews.

As of now, this is as far as we've gotten. Alex has started work on the response essay, with plans for Adrian, Andy and I to contribute our portions over the weekend. As soon as Adrian finishes up the upperclassmen interviews (this afternoon), we will polish the video footage on Alex's computer and get it ready for presentation Wednesday, December 7. Let's hope all goes as planned.

Team TRS

Joshua Baghdady. Adrian Epps. Andrew Runnion. Alex Wall. United at Clemson from across the southeast, these four students hope to achieve greatness in their final, magnum opus of English 103: the Multimedia Argument Project.
Dramatic enough? I hope so. You need to have something to spice up these otherwise-mundane blog assignments. Oh well. The end of the semester is approaching, and I can already almost smell that turkey. And cranberry sauce. And stuffing. And sweet potato casserole. And pumpkin pie. With whipped cream.
No! Stop! Focus, Baghdady, focus. Let's do this.
The assignment: 400-500 words discussing the group project so far and each member's participation. All right. I'll start with Adrian.
Adrian has been vital so far in creating the storyboard on our Google Doc. Today in class as we started putting together the things we've been brainstorming this past week, he helped to organize our topics in the Doc and integrated images from the internet that fit our ideas.
Andrew has been...Andrew. Infamous for sitting in class and giving everyone an apathetic stare, he has helped in the formulation of the ideas and flow of our topic and has been valuable in pointing out any needed changes.
Alex has worked alongside both Adrian and me in both creating and editing our storyboard. Her ideas and proposals have helped our entire group get on the right page with this project and have helped to give us needed direction and inspiration. (When I say "needed," I mean "absolutely necessary." Don't forget that this class is at nine in the morning. Without Alex, Andy and I would probably just sit sprawled over the chairs half asleep, while I practiced imitating Andy's famous apathetic stare. I'm pretty sure it's a skill I can attain. Anyway. Back to the project. What would this blog post be without me talking about me? Actually, don't answer that. It would be a normal blog post. But ignore that point for the moment and view the preceding question as purely rhetorical. Read on.)
As for myself, I concocted the topic (questioning the necessity and purpose of general engineering education courses) with Alex's help and gave it the title "Weed Out: It's Not What You Think." When we started storyboarding, I helped in formulating our major points and their arrangement in our planned video, while looking over and tweaking Alex's and Adrian's work on the Doc itself.
That's really it so far. We've only worked on this since Monday, so there's not much to go off of at this point. Have I reached 400 words yet? I hope so. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Clemson Writing Center (or, English Grad Students with Facial Hair)

Well that's a good sign. I'm actually able to open blogger and type into the "New Post" box. Let's hope this uploads when I'm done, or random passerby may soon see a MacBook Pro being thrown out of the third floor window of Sanders Hall.

You see, Google recently updated its entire system, meaning that we, the poor oafs of this reigning internet monarch, have been forced to adapt. The consequences of non-compliance? Separation from the modern world. Oh well. It's not the first time, and it definitely will not be the last. 

Anyway. As I typed the above paragraphs the blog title "English 103" stared out at me unblinkingly, as if knowing that so far this post has had absolutely nothing to do with Charlsie's class. But that, dear reader, is about to change. 

You see, this week was the due date of the rough drafts for our research assignment. But wait! There's more! (This is college you know.) Miss Charlsie, the benevolent, caring, watchful teacher that she is, assigned to us a project: Go to the Clemson Writing Center, take whatever you have so far of your draft, and proceed to review it with one of the graduate students there. Sounds good. I accordingly scheduled an appointment for Tuesday November 1 at 3 pm. In Daniel 305. With some guy named Samuel Fuller.
Samuel Fuller himself is a rather strange individual. He has this huge beard that he's always plucking on. Always. With really long hair. Glasses. Marginally socially awkward. I mean, who else would want to sit in a tiny cubicle and go over undergraduate papers all day when you could be out having a life, right? Hopefully he's getting some extra credit. He sure seems to know his stuff.
We went over my outline and the small amount of actual drafting I had accomplished. He was quite helpful. The biggest message I took away was to streamline my introduction, combine and erase unnecessary sentences and get to the thesis as quickly as possible. Don't confuse people with random facts and wordy sentences in the introduction that will take away from your thesis. Keep things short, sweet and to the point.
Another thing we discussed was the sheer size my paper could potentially reach given the massive amount of information I planned to cover. 2500 words really aren't that much when you're writing a dissertation. He suggested shortening and clipping some of the topics I had planned to cover in my outline and get to the meat of the paper as concisely as possible. That's what the reader is looking for anyway, right?

Research Paper Outline

Joshua Baghdady

English 103-005

Mrs. Charlsie Lamos

October 21, 2011

Research Paper – Outline

I. Introduction

1. Hook: A brief description of the differing practices and beliefs adhered to in Christianity and Judaism. This is to show how very different the two religions are in an attempt to draw the reader in. The questions are then presented: Why are they so different? Why are followers of these two belief systems adversaries of each other? How can they claim to base their knowledge off of many of the same Scriptures yet have such differing views on how to be right with God? Where does Jesus Christ fit in?

2. Thesis: In the years following the life of Jesus Christ, the vast majority of adherents to Jesus’ teachings were Jewish people well-versed in and followers of the Tanakh (the Old Testament), especially the first five books, called the Torah. The answer to what happened and how the followers of Jesus became estranged from the Torah lies in the uncovering of some of the church history of the first few centuries AD. The impact of the various councils held by the church fathers, one of the most influential of which was the Roman emperor Flavius Constantinus (better known as Constantine the Great), was pivotal in determining the estrangement of the two belief systems.

3. Implications: What has this meant for adherents to both faiths? What impact did this have on Jewish believers in Jesus as the Messiah? Why is this important today?

II. The Setting

1.     A look into Jewish beliefs at the time of Jesus Christ’s birth.

2.     Jesus’ impact on the rabbinicalism of the day.

3.     The response of this impact by both the religious authorities and lay people.

III. The Early Years

1.     The promulgation of Jesus’ teachings in the first years following His transfiguration.

2.     The response of the Roman government.

IV. Christianity is born

1.     The separation of the rabbinical authorities from the Jesus-followers.

2.     The birth of the early church councils.

3.     A brief biography of Flavius Constantinus.

4.     The impact of Constantinus on the early church and the practices adopted as a result.

5.     The response of the Jewish authorities.

V. The Big Picture – Conclusion

            1. The effect of these early decisions made by both sides on adherents to both
            faiths.

            2. The modern impact of these age-old decisions.

3. The importance of uncovering the history of their faith for followers of both Judaism and Christianity and to understand why they believe what they believe about the other side.

Friday Flyers

Wow. I'm not sure if what I was doing here was an exercise in locating and photographing some metal structures or an exercise in trying to see how far my un-exercised tendons will go. 17,000 acres means nothing until you actually try to traverse it, especially if you're not really sure what you're looking for. Allow me to elaborate.
So Miss Charlsie had us do these "Fun Friday" activities two weeks ago about some of the Clemson traditions here on campus. One of these was the "Friday Flyers," a project proposed by John Acorn, former chair of the arts department. What are they? They are six eight-foot-long aluminum paper airplanes scattered across campus as if thrown from the Hendrix Student Center. The idea? According to Acorn, "the random placement of these six forms symbolizes the importance of diversity and chance, innovation and human perseverance. The release of a paper airplane and its subsequent course parallels academia and the function of sending out the seeds of an idea for others to discover and explore."
So my job was to find them. Well. Easier said than done.
The first was easy. It hangs from the ceiling of Hendrix quite conspicuously:

Since I really didn't know where to go from there, I headed upstairs in Hendrix to the computers available on the second floor. I located a map of the Friday Flyers and went from there. As promised by the map, the second flyer is located diagonally across Perimeter Road from Hendrix on the hill:

So. Two down. Four to go. The next flyer was rather difficult, as it wasn't located where the map had promised. Instead of being on the Newman Hall side of the Poole and Agriculture Building, it is located on the Lehotsky Hall side, among thick monkey grass underneath a willow tree. Of the six, this one is in the most aesthetically-pleasing spot:

Halfway! On to the library. This one is interestingly positioned: apparently it was front-heavy when it left Hendrix:

Not too bad. Four down with relative ease. And I even knew exactly where the next one was! The first few Saturdays after arriving here at Clemson almost eight weeks ago, I would walk around campus and try to get familiar with the layout. I noticed a strange structure on the North Green by the Brooks Center on one of these journeys, but paid it no attention. It wasn't until we talked about the flyers on "Fun Friday" two weeks ago that it occurred to me that that is indeed what this thing is:

Well. Now this is where it gets fun. I had seen on the map back on the computer in Hendrix that the final flyer was located far out on the outskirts of campus near Perimeter Road and the commuter parking lots. What I did not know was how many commuter parking lots there are, or how many hills among them. Or trees. Trees that could potentially hide a flyer. Or anything else, for that matter. And the day was growing warm. And my legs are not used to this hill country. After walking around and around, going first too far and ending up by the stadium, then coming back and re-tracing my steps, all the while looking among the shrubbery and bushes, I was getting pretty frustrated. This blasted piece of junk was nowhere to be found. Only parking lots and a ton of cars. Finally I came back and crossed Williamson Road and was heading back up the hill when I saw it. Quite a welcome sight, if an elusive one. In case some poor Clemson student has to do what I did today and while searching the internet for help comes across this blog, hopefully I can make it a little easier for him: from the intersection of Perimeter Road and Williamson Road, walk up the sidewalk to the east. After a minute or so you will see the flyer on the hill to the north (your left). So here it is:

Well that was fun. As in, tiring and exhausting. Frustrating and irritating. But hey! Fall break is right around the corner. And the Tigers are 6-0. And the weather is beautiful. And I'm hungry. Shalom.

A Guy Talking about His Emotions?

Second blog post this week. Maybe Miss Charlsie's idea behind having us compose all these posts is so that our writing will actually improve (fancy that...).
Anyway. As much as I would like to ramble on talking about nothing in particular in no real order or format without meaning or reason behind the words I type or any rather significant explanation as to why I'm wasting my readers' times doing it sort of like right now, I actually do have something (relatively) worthwhile to talk about. *Insert drum roll*: me!
That's right people. I have received permission from the high command that I can write about how I feel. Specifically about this research paper, but also about the class, the weather, my likes, dislikes, passions, idiosyncrasies, etc. (How many words is this thing supposed to be again? Looks like I'm going to need more space.)
Actually, I'm kidding. (Lucky you.) But not completely. I do get to talk about my feelings about this research paper, or, more specifically, any "anxieties, frustrations, excitements" I may have.
Cool. So now that I've successfully used up significantly more than half of all the words necessary for this blog beating around the bush, let's get started.
So how do I feel?
Honestly, I feel slightly stressed. Not very stressed, but slightly. I don't think that's a peculiarity. Like I said in the last post, research papers can be imposing.
On the other hand, I feel slightly excited. Well, modestly excited. Moderately, modestly excited. Whatever. Joking aside, I am actually quite interested in the topic at hand (see last post) and am looking forward to researching it.
I enjoy discussions of church history and why things in the church are the way they are. I will say I have pretty strong opinions on some topics, but I will attempt (as any good writer should) to look at my research from a viewpoint that is as unbiased as possible. In case you haven't read my last post, my topic is on the polarization of Christianity from what is called Judaism in the first centuries following the life of Jesus Christ. The precedents set in those turbulent days in history have affected (and continue to affect) countless thousands of people worldwide. It at least deserves some amount of attention.

Research Log Post

"Record an observation in your Research Log through the blog in which you reflect on how the research process is going and how the visual mapping process helps you conceptualize the research necessary for your project."

Wow. That sounds involved. So far, I haven't actually put anything on paper as far as writing my research goes, but I do have a few ideas where I'm headed once I get started.

I have a book that sort of inspired me to pursue this topic for my research and will be one of the most-relied-upon secondary sources for this project. Entitled Epidemic: Examining the Infected Roots of Judaism and Christianity, Dr. Russell Houck examines how both Judaism and Christianity came to be and how events orchestrated in the first centuries AD caused a separation of the two religions that continues to have impacts on adherents to these faiths in current times.

While this is certainly a valuable resource, I plan to pull information from history books dealing with the Roman Empire in the first centuries AD and how the various emperors chose to deal with this new sect of "Jesus-followers" from the time of Nero forward. 

As a primary source, I will tap into some early church writings and see how these affected early Christianity as a whole and how the Catholic Church arose out of these teachings.

If space permits I may touch upon Martin Luther's writings, specifically his 95 Theses, and look at how Luther's expectations that the Jews would rally to support his ideas were badly disappointed and how this ultimately affected the anti-Semitism found in many of the Protestant denominations today.

As boring as all church history may sound to some folks, I really find it quite interesting. Since I have done a bit of research on my own over the past year or so on this topic, I hope to not have too much trouble when it comes to locating references for my bibliography.

So that's where I am so far. Till next time!

Two-Thousand Year Old Research?

So. I'm not going to lie. Research papers sound imposing. Given the minimum of 2500 words and consisting of a full 30% of my entire grade in this course, they can be a little disconcerting. If you take procrastination into account, they become very disconcerting. Fortunately for me, these blog posts have set deadlines every week, so emptying my thoughts here over time will help me when it comes to actually formulating the body of my paper.

So about my topic. Originally I planned to write on the gross atrocities behind the War in Iraq and its effect on the United States, but since this topic is such a "hot potato" in politics today I have decided to side-step it and research something a little more "cut and dry". That something will be the story behind the rise of Christianity and its slow polarization away from what is called Judaism in the first centuries after Jesus Christ walked the earth. 

As discussed in earlier posts, I have a unique background with regards to the Abrahamic faiths. I enjoy researching them and learning the history behind what we see with regards to these religions in society today. Why are the Jews and the Christians enemies? Why is there such a rift between these two groups of people? How can they claim to base their knowledge off of the same Scriptures yet have such differing views on how to be right with God? Where does Jesus of Nazareth fit in? These questions and more I will attempt to answer in my study. 

I plan to rely heavily upon the early church writings and the works of some famous historians from the time period. I will concentrate on Constantine, the early fourth century Roman emperor who legalized Christianity throughout the empire, and the integral part he played in causing the church to behave much like what we see in western Christianity today. Depending upon the amount of effort this will require and how much space I have when I begin putting everything together, I may even look into the effect of Martin Luther on the church and the rise of Protestantism in western Europe in the early sixteenth century.
Since I am very interested in this topic and have somewhat of a personal stake in the issue, I believe I will not dread this assignment as much, say, as researching the mutation of lipoproteins over time and their current position in biochemistry. (Who's ever even heard of lipoproteins? Kudos to all you biochemists out there. God be with you.)
Anyway, I'm actually sort of looking forward to putting all of this information together. Since I have been researching this topic on my own for quite some time, I hope to not have too much difficulty finding reliable sources of information. I expect to learn much from this study and help my readers better understand the reasons the Jews and Christians behave the way they do with regards to one another in the 21st century.

Tea Party?

Freewrite. What does that mean? Basically, freewriting is just taking some form of media and dumping your impressions, feelings, etc about it out onto paper (or in my case, this blank, somewhat-imposing white blog page). Here goes.
The form of media I chose to explore is a political cartoon published on September 22, 2011 in the Ottawa Citizen by cartoonist James Cardow. Cardow makes an interesting argument here on the current apathy of many Americans towards their present government system.

Over the past decade, political candidates have made extravagant promises in their debates and speeches: promises that give them favor in the eyes of citizens and help them to get elected. Once in office, however, it is as if the candidates have forgotten everything that brought them to their position, and their once-so-persuading promises seem to fly out the window. The American people have taken notice and, quite frankly, are fed up. For many, their frustration transforms into complete political apathy. The citizens of the United States are tired of seeing well-dressed, well-spoken individuals stand up and make commitments to the people that, time and time again, fail to see their way to completion. This cartoon does a great job showing the current apathy many Americans have adopted.

Cardow uses the setting of the infamous Boston Tea Party as the background for his statement. Familiar to anyone with any knowledge of US history, this event on December 16, 1773 showed the British empire that the American people were ready to stand up and protest the intense rulings and taxes to which they had been imposed. The tea on board the three ships had come from England and a heavy tax had been foisted which the revolutionists in the colonies were not willing to pay. They demanded that the ships return to England. When the royal governor of Massachusetts refused, firebrand revolutionist Samuel Adams called a meeting to discuss a plan of action. The meeting quickly got out of hand, and soon some 30-130 men, some disguised as Mohawk Indians, poured out of the meeting house and down to Boston Harbor, where they boarded the ships carrying the tea. They then proceeded, over the course of the next three hours, to dump all 342 chests of tea into the bay, showing the British crown that they were not willing to be coerced without representation in government.
Cardow juxtaposes this event in his cartoon by making the "revolutionaries" Facebook users. Instead of tea, it is their computers they are throwing overboard, showing their dissent with the new Facebook interface.
This cartoon makes a powerful statement about the way many Americans feel about government today. Instead of protesting current political agendas and policies, the people of the United States are so put out with broken promises that they have completely abandoned any efforts of reform, instead focusing on popular culture and making it more a integral part of their lives. Having abandoned all hopes of governmental reform, citizens the country over are disappointed in their representatives and have turned their attention to other facets of society.

Background for Visual Rhetoric Assignment

It seems that if I am to construct an argument based on a visual text, it would behoove me to choose a topic with which I am fairly knowledgeable. That topic would have to be Israel. But before I forget, let me go ahead and include my thesis statement here to get it out of the way: "Using the rhetorical tool of exaggeration, cartoonist Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake City Tribune illustrates the unique position the Jews occupy in regards to Beck, on the one hand opposing his incredulous claim that they will one day convert to Christianity but on the other acknowledging the common enemy they have in the Muslims. Beck is correctly portrayed here as putting himself at odds with both groups of people in his attempt to 'Christianize' the Jews."

So now. On to the background. Israel, or more specifically its capital of Jerusalem, is known as the "most coveted location in the world". This ancient place is home to sites holy to three different religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. As of 2000, Jerusalem was home to 1204 synagogues, 158 churches and 73 mosques.

Pretty interesting data. And this is sort of a taste of what's more to come in the paper itself. But this blog is more about me, about why I chose this particular cartoon and my stakes in the issue with which it is concerned.

I wanted to include the background information about Jerusalem in this blog for a reason. See, I have a peculiar relationship with all three of the afore-mentioned religions, an interesting "stake" in the issue at hand, and this cartoon in particular. See, I can relate to all three of the afore-mentioned religions. To start, my last name is Baghdady.

Yes, my family is from the Middle East; Baghdad, to be more specific. You could have guessed. Before my grandfather dropped the Muhammad from his name, he was assumed to be Muslim, as are many of his brothers and sisters. So there's one religion represented in my past.

The second is Christianity. Both of my parents are believers and I was born into the Baptist church. At a young age I accepted Jesus Messiah as Savior based upon what He did for me by dying on a cross just outside Jerusalem some 2000 years ago.

But there is a twist. I would not refer to myself as a Christian or even a Protestant. Enter the third religion, Judaism. Many Christians do not take Judaism seriously, even though the Jew's Torah comprises the first five books of all Bibles. Christians like to take Paul's New Testament epistle to the Galatians and use this with other New Testament texts to discount the Torah, brushing it off as something Jesus took care of, did away with, at the cross. In my interpretation of the Scriptures I do not find this to be the case, and thus I adhere to practices typically categorized under Judaism, such as abstaining from the unclean foods, worshipping on the Sabbath day (Saturday) as opposed to Sunday, and observing the seven Feasts of the LORD, erringly referred to as "Jewish feasts".

So that's my story. A little background for those who will read my paper. Oh yea, the draft is due Monday, right? I bet you can't guess what I'll be doing this weekend.

Summer Memories

Summer. The very word invokes in many people happy feelings, fond memories of warm, care-free, sun-drenched days where all worries seem to have disappeared, chased away by the winds of spring along with the grey clouds of winter. Summer awakens pleasant nostalgia to days gone by, recollections of jovial times spent with friends and family. For almost all Americans, summer is the time for family vacations which can take many forms, from day trips to the beach to month-long excursions overseas. Cameras come alive in the summertime as well, for everyone wants to document the out-of-the-ordinary in their lives to show to their friends back at home and set up around the house as fond reminiscences of time spent together.
The picture I chose for this blog would fall under the weekend-trip-to-the-beach category, when my family and I two years ago ventured to Edisto Island in the South Carolina low country to stay at a house our good friends the Snows were so gracious to allow us to use free of cost. This particular shot was taken from their front yard, where this lone palmetto tree stands elegantly guarding the entrance to the driveway. I chose to exclude the majority of the surrounding trees for this image, focusing on the top of the palmetto as the center of the photograph. The moon was out and the evening was very clear, and the thought came to me to emulate the South Carolina state flag, the blue background contrasting with the state tree and the crescent moon situated at the top left.
So here it is: a tribute to days at the seashore, long summer evenings, and good old South Carolina low country living.

Rhetoric on Campus

Last week's blog post concerned the art of rhetoric and successful argumentation in general; this week, I'm going to look into some specific examples here on campus and analyze their persuasive techniques.

At Clemson, as is typical of any public university, the student body is comprised of people from diverse backgrounds, regions, religions, beliefs and values. These different people have different interests, different views and different definitions of having a good time. To prevent ostracism, these different people come together under common interests and form groups and societies to further their ideas, strengthen their beliefs and propagate their agendas in an effort to increase participation in their cause. This is where rhetoric comes into play. In order to garner the interest of freshmen and transfer students new to the university, the leaders of these diverse groups use the art of persuasion to win new students over to their cause or society. Thus the plethora of flyers, signs, posters and announcements that can be seen as soon as I step out of my dorm. Let's look at a few in detail.

First, on the steps leading up to my hall on the third floor, I find a CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) flyer advertising weekly Bible studies held on the first floor of the neighboring dorm. Its simple design is accentuated with the symbol of the cross, calling out to all "believers" that they can find good company and similar viewpoints on Christian topics by joining in this activity. The further statement that the study is limited to freshmen guys works well in my freshmen dorm, suggesting that no one who attends the studies will feel ostracized or uncomfortable around students years older than themselves.

Next stop: post office. Of the many ads lining the walls, one that caught my eye was a flyer representing EcoRep, the campus housing's environmental organization. The letters are in green type contrasted against a stark white background with the recycle symbol, but the most persuasive part of the flyer is its picture. Situated in the lower left-hand corner, a person's hands hold the sphere of the earth, indicating not only the fragility of our planet but also the great responsibility we have of maintaining the beauty and wonder of our world, "making a positive impact", in the words of the organization, "for a better future".

It would be a travesty in any discussion of college organization rhetoric not to mention the Greeks. Found on one of the many columns of ads located in the student union, my favorite society poster was created by the Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority, encouraging freshmen girls to come out to their "rush". Using the analogy of flying in the poster, the catchy line at the top rhetorically asks, "Why settle for less when you can fly with the best?"Underneath are pictures of airplanes and first-class seats, and the information about where to meet is given in terms of "departure" and "take-off": "Fly Gamma Sig! Always First Class." But the thing that caused me to remember this particular ad the most was it's final line on the bottom: "Take off with us and be oh so fly like a GSig." This line summarizes the airplane theme and also gives its readers something to remember: a play on the words of the song "Like a G6" by the Far East Movement.

Clearly students have learned to be both creative and informative in their rhetorical advertisements as they try to gain as many followers as possible. Sounds good to me. The only question I have now is, where do I sign up?

Rhetoric All Around Us

Blogging. According to Oxford's American Dictionary, a "blog" is "a personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to others sites, etc. on a regular basis". I find no reason to argue. My question is, in what way should I utilize this white page in front of me? Perhaps it's best to start with what we are covering in class right now, as this is rather fresh in my mind: rhetoric.

What is rhetoric? If we again consult Oxford, we find this definition: "the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing". Ok. But I daresay rhetoric can be applied to a much broader range of media. How about audio/visual? Radio and television commercials are a constant cacophony in our ears, attempting to explain to us why a certain product, thing, idea or person is something in which we should invest our time, money or vote.

A person skilled in the art of persuasion can find a lucrative career in the field of law, where attorneys are hired and paid based upon the power they hold to make a judge or jury think a certain way about an issue, encouraging them to view ideas from the perspective of their clients. My father is an attorney himself, and for 27 years has been representing the needs of his clientele before an audience. For him, the art of successful persuasion has earned the money needed to clothe and feed his wife and seven children.

As the textbook Envision in Depth: Reading, Writing and Researching Arguments points out in chapter 1, a college campus is full of rhetorical exercises for any reader. Everywhere I turn here at Clemson University there are signs, posters and billboards posted by every organization vying for my attention, attempting to persuade me and all other readers that their event, their activity or their cause should take precedence. What better course to study in my first semester here, then, than one that teaches not only how to comprehend the rhetoric we see as an audience but also to cultivate our own rhetorical skills to persuade others to "join our cause"? These skills will come in handy not only on the college campus but throughout life, sometimes, as in the case of my father, ones that provide for the well-being of himself and his family.

So here goes. Hopefully by this time in four months I will be able to distinguish more clearly between good and bad reasoning as well as sharpen my own skills of persuasion. Wish me luck.