My Writing...

Writing has always been something that I can do, sometimes I can do it well, and other times I cannot. Really, like all other people, my writing skill depends on what I am writing about, and whether or not I understand what I am writing about.

When I was little, I wanted to be a teacher. Then I wanted to be a writer, and I still have the stories that I wrote when I was a child. When I was in high school, I had a teacher who encouraged me, but then the next year, I didn’t have her anymore, and I was in an AP class, without prior knowledge to anything they were talking about. My creativity fell because of this class, and it was upsetting, because I used to love it so much, and then I didn’t. In senior year, I had another teacher who was an encouragement, but the passion I once had wasn’t coming back. I had fun writing the assignments for that class, as well as the one that I was in this semester, but I think now I have learned how to write differently than what they taught me in high school.

My process of writing hasn’t changed since way back in the day. When I have to write a paper, I sit my butt down and do it, and write the entire thing in one sitting. When I finish, I re-read it to see if it’s any good. If not I take what was good, and I trash what was bad. Hours later I come back to it and see how it looks, and if it sounds bad, I trash it again. I did this in high school, but I didn’t have the time to trash it over and over again, so most of the time, my teacher just got whatever I spewed out the first time, and usually I got marked down for the trashy parts that I should have cut out. Now that I have time, I can go over these papers and fix them. Since I wasn’t really taught how to do this, the first couple posts I did were probably like this… but now they’re doing better.

Work shopping is really important to me. This last paper that we wrote, the rhetorical analysis, I didn’t understand how the heck to write it. I wrote what I could and I came to class very unprepared, but then when we did peer reviews, my partner told me that my paper sounded like a reflection rather than an analysis. Then she suggested ways that I could change what I had said to make it more analytical. With her help, I think that I at least turned my paper around and hopefully got it going in the right direction.

My writing, in my own opinion, has not changed drastically since this class started. English has always been a strong point for me, and although I don’t get “into it” like some of my peers, I do find it interesting and fun. In the first post that I did for this class, I think that my writing got awfully repetitive, and that is something that changed for the better…Yet I think that I still have a tendency to do that. My stronger point was definitely the observational essay, because it’s observation, hell anyone can do that. It was something that I was familiar with, so it made it even easier, but I had a problem with the word limit, because I went way to far over, and it was even worse before I cut things out. I had the same problem with the reflective essay, and I think it’s because I put too much detail into my writing and sometimes… I don’t know where to stop. Weaker points, besides what I just mentioned was FOR SURE the rhetorical analysis. I don’t know if I personally just didn’t get it, or if it was something that everyone had problems with. I just could not grasp the concept! It was annoying to write, because I didn’t know what I was doing, and I just tried my best, and then I took it to class, and my reviewer said that it was wrong. I was so down… but then she helped me a lot. (See, there’s my repetition again…) The other thing that gave me problems was because I am so shy, I don’t like to talk to people I don’t know. Communication is a bit part of writing, and this was hard for me.

Environmental Argument

When it comes to the environment, it seems like no one cares anymore. People drive around - polluting for the fun of it. We waste heat and electricity like it's no big deal. Our factories run day and night, but we ignore it. When I used to take the bus, and came out of the station, the difference in the air was overwhelming from the pollution. People can’t seem to take the hints that our environment is throwing at us, and it's displayed in this cartoon.

Cruising is one of the things that come to mind when I think of "polluting for the fun of it." This cartoon illustrates a hummer, an H2, towing behind it a floating vehicle that says "United Fuel in Air, (Unfair.) Ironically, it says 'unfair' which is what the human populace is to the environment. The smoke that is coming out of the vehicle is pollution the air. The theme is interesting, because usually in ads, they are "BUY OUR PRODUCT!" but here, which is not the case. It is saying "Don't buy this product!" The argument is plain and simple; H2 Hummers are driven by people who just don't care.



The 'bumper stickers' are statements displaying the ignorance/arrogance of the drivers of these vehicles. "Honk if you're high and mighty" is the first and the most generalizing of the statements and it's a great start. When people have the "Honk if..." statements, they're usually protesting something. This one, on the other hand, says "Honk if you're high and mighty," which would display your arrogance if you did. These bumper stickers are their persuasive message, and the first is the start of the sarcasm used here.

Originally, they are based on the military High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or Humvee. The Hummer is one of the larger SUV types, with commensurate high fuel consumption. (Wikipedia.com) These vehicles are used as carriers for cargo and troops as well as weapons platforms, ambulances, missile carriers, as well as many other things. After learning that, it makes one wonder how these vehicles became used for everyday driving. Even Humvees use a ton of gas, and pollute a lot, so when you read the second bumper sticker, it makes you think. "Fe fi fo fum, I smell the oil of a hybrid scum," is kind of a bitter statement, because while it insists that hybrid cars are scum, and not as good as the H2 Hummer.

Both the wording and the imagery are equally important in this cartoon, because without one, the other wouldn't make that much sense. Without the text, it would just be a picture of an H2 Hummer dragging around another vehicle that says "Unfair" on it. Yet without that, the bumper stickers wouldn't be nearly as appealing, because a person would just glance at it, without thinking. First, the eye sees the picture, and then reads the captions, even if that is backward from the way we read; the image grabs the eye first.


Next, moving along to appeals, this ad can be seen as to appeal to all, (logos, ethos and pathos.) The appeal to logos is the rationality behind this argument, which it’s just in people’s rationality they should not driver hummers because it’s pushing along the killing of our air. There’s not really any statistics, or even facts present in this cartoon, but the statements are exaggerated truths. Logical fallacies aren’t here either, which is good, which are more common in political arguments. In a way, this is a logical appeal because it is a logical result in using such a fuel consuming vehicle.

Ethos is also strongly present in this, because it’s appeal to character, more specifically, the speakers. The speaker is the comic writer and their character is the same of the people that look for these kinds of comics, and find them funny. By reading this, you can tell that the artist/writer is someone who more than likely doesn’t drive an H2 Hummer themselves. There are no misuses of Ethos here, which makes it even more convincing. Pathos is also easy to find in this work, because it appeals to the emotions. The whole thing is full of humor, and if you find it funny it appealing to you, and the artist did their job, by making you laugh at something that you dislike. The humor in this is something that seems like it would only be seen by people who don’t agree that vehicles like this one need to be driven on our streets. These jokes are what make it an appeal to the emotion. There are no exaggerated uses of pathos here, because there is no scare tactic, over sentimentalization, or “sliding down the slippery slope fallacies” here, because this ad is simple, it says that if you support and drive H2 Hummers , you are killing the air.

Hummers have a reputation, as stated “Although the Hummer H1 has a rock-solid reputation as a go-anywhere, climb a wall, he-man machine, its historic roots run back a century to a spindly horseless carriage called the overland runabout.” (Lamm, 11) Although this is about the H1, the H2 isn’t that different. This chapter later delves into the history of the Hummer, which in fact, the vehicle later known as the Humvee, is based off a military jeep. On caption below a picture of a jeep says “The great grandfather of all Hummers is the famous Willys World War II Jeep, which was known throughout the world for its go-anywhere, four-wheel drive versatility and ruggedness.” (12) And then the next picture states; “AM General civilianized the military Humvee and created the H1, keeping the big machine’s unique proportions and making little compromise for street life.” (13)

This book does not have an argument like the comic, because it is a pretty factual book, but it makes a person wonder “WHY” have military vehicles for your personal driving?

This comic is trying to tell people that their environment is precious, and they’re destroying it by doing things like driving around in vehicles like Hummers, which treat the world unfairly.

Works cited:
Lamm, John and De Lorenzo, Matt. Hummer H2. St. Paul MN; Motorbooks International, 2002.