Reading Blog

America in the early 20th century was enamored with communist ideals because it was an easy way to categorize their fear regarding those of different, possibly more radical viewpoints than themselves. There was an appetite for these ideas because calling someone a communist or labeling something as communist, made the public’s fear more tangible. Therefore their willingness to label their fear increases and since it becomes tangible they believe it is easier to overcome. Although I know more concerning other periods in American history, I do find Communism and McCarthyism incredibly interesting and the publics use of it even more so. Also, Marx’s ideals are extremely fascinating as well and one of my favorite quotes of his is, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” What I find most interesting is the concept of The Black List and the threat that one would end up on it. Liberalism and intellectualism are not always synonymous and Jacoby mentions that one can give up liberalism all together. Although they can go hand in hand because as one broadens their horizons and becomes more intellectual, they do tend to do toward the liberal side, but however not always.

Prewriting Blog #3

In the Presidential debate, both candidates committed a plethora of logical fallacies. In particular, both used the numbers=facts=truth to better enhance their claims, especially when speaking about economic matters. Two tactics employed in conjunction by the McCain camp is attacking the person and guilt by association in regards to Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers and ACORN. This is a blatant logical fallacy because just because one is associated with someone who was apart of a radical organization does not make them a terrorist if they were not apart of said organization. Jacoby speaks upon a similar situation and the stigma and name calling in which people were called communists if they knew anyone who was Communist or express any diverging ideals.


The primary outcome of this essay is to express the prevalence of logical fallacies and their ineffectiveness. Also, to show how the public is easily persuaded into believing these fallacies.


What I need to consider about my audience is that not everyone believes that a logical fallacy is actually false and to not write my paper just toward a left, Democratic audience.

Self Evaluation Blog #1

Overall, I think my first essay was a success. I had one grammar issue, which is the incorrect usage of a semicolon and I realize that I should have just stuck to a comma. Those semicolons can be tricky . . .even for English majors. The main reason I misused the semicolon is because the second bit of my sentence was a fragment and could not stand alone without the first section. Dag. Another thing I need to work on, which is not really grammar related is how I phrase my introduction to an author’s work or quotes from it because it can be slightly awkward.

In the perilous journey from draft #1 to draft #3, I learned the importance of reading aloud my paper and how it is beneficial in finding errors and weird wording. I cannot think of anything that was superfluous . . .the discussion that was had on the first draft day was pretty rad and thought provoking regarding why we, as students, write essays.

Honestly, my point of view in regard to grammar and rhetoric has not changed. I think I have got a pretty solid grip on the wild beast that is grammar. The only thing I need to look out for is the elusive run on sentence because I tend to write long, wordy sentences (which this whole blog probably is), but other than that grammar and I have come to a mutual understanding.

From the lecture, I took the lecture itself and the nature of my fellow students during lecture. Since my essay advocates discussion in the classroom, I tried to take my experience in class and my experience in high school to promote more discussion in the classroom and its benefits.