Black English

James Baldwin makes a compelling argument in his essay “If Black English isn’t A language, What is?’ regarding language and the roll it plays in our cultural and even personal identities. Baldwin goes to state that language is a political instrument and proof of power, “It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.” Baldwin shows that language can be broken down to many parts and through language a person reveals who he or she is.

 

Baldwin also addresses how the Black English has helped develop and influence the White Americans English. He mentions that he wonders what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States. He supports his claim that the language of the black cultural is to get just as much credit as the language of the white cultural for the formation of the English we speak today. He uses the example of  how the White Americans  have adopted the Jazz Age and without the black cultural influence, the Jazz we know would not be the same.

 

Baldwin uses good historical evidence to support his claim and leaves out logical fallacies that may provide the reader with false information. Baldwin is very descriptive offers the reader many examples to further support his claim. It can also be trusted that James Baldwin is a credible author for he has experienced different forms of language by living in the United States and France and also his background of being involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

"Concealed Carry on Campus"

“Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.” Concealed Campus. (2007), 13 

            March 2008. <http://concealedcampus.org/index.htm.>

The source I chose so site and evaluate is the website “Students for Concealed on Campus.” This website advocates for the right of students and teachers to be able to carry a concealed weapon on college campuses. The supporters of this site argue that students over the age of 21 should be able to carry a weapon that they are able to carry just about everywhere else in order to protect themselves. Since school shootings such as the one at Virginia Tech, it is argued that students and teachers should have a way to protect themselves since it often is too late by the time authority arrive to the scene.

 

This website lists facts and statistics regarding how many states allow concealed carry and why concealed carry should be legal on college campuses. It is very clear what this view of this website is, but they also offer the readers possible arguments someone from the other side of the argument may say. I can trust that this site is reputable and can be used in my argument paper because they offer video clips of their representatives speaking on well-known news stations such as Fox News. It was last updated on March 4, 2008, which shows that the information provided is recent and accurate. The website is targeted to college students to try to get them involved on their own campuses and to reach out to their local government officials. I found this site to be very clear and easy to navigate through. Their purpose was easy to understand and they offered good reason and sources for the stand that they have taken which is to allow concealed carry on campuses. 

"The Right to Fail"

Who decides what is success and what is failure? According to the “American Dream” success involves graduating high school, attending a college university and then become successful in a professional career.  In “The Right to Fail”, William Zinsser writes, “ The right to fail is one of the few freedoms this country does not grant its citizens.” Today there is so much pressure for a teenager to go to college, whether they are following the footsteps of everyone else in their family or are the first in their family to go to college.

 

My mom didn’t finish college, but rather got married and started a family. Though she did not complete college, that has not affected her ability to be a hard worker. She is in sales at a computer company and works with many people that have a college degree, yet she is one of the best sales people in her company. This shows that receiving a college education is not where you receive all your knowledge and you can still be successful if you are determined.

 

Though my mom did not complete college, she has always urged me to go to college. Ever since I was young I knew I would go to a four-year university and become a nurse. This may be considered following the “American Dream” but has always been my dream that I formed for myself. I have always strived to receive good grades and consider getting a “C” a failure. But as I have grown I have come to realize that failure is what makes a person grow.  Without failing you will never be able to know how you can make yourself better.

 

Everyone has their own definition of “success” and I feel that they should all be respected. Everyone must fail at some point in his or her life in order to be able to grow and become a stronger person. As Zinsser says, “Don’t be afraid to fail” for with failure comes growth and maturity. 

CRAAP Test

I chose to analyze the website Martin Luther King. After reviewing the CRAAP test I realized that this website is not a reliable website to use. One of the first things I notice on the web page is the link “Why the King Holiday Should be Repealed” When you click on the link you will be brought to a paper that was created by a source “ The Creativity Movement” which provides a web address that did not exist when I tried to visit the site. Since there is not an accurate web-address provided, this shows that it may not be a reliable source of information. There is also an article that talks about the night that King died. Though there is information cited from a normally reliable source, Newsweek magazine, there is also information cited from Rev. Ralph Abernathy who was a close friend of King and wrote a book “ And the Walls Came Tumbling Down.” Abernathy states that King was actually “having sex with three white women, one of whom he brutally beat.” This story is coming from one man and does not prove to be a reliable source.

This website is hosted by Stormfront. When I clicked on the link I learned that Stormfront is a white pride community. There are blogs posted talking about how Martin Luther King jr. was not a good man. Since the Martin Luther King jr. website is hosted by a white pride community, it shows that their views are biased and not based off of facts.

 

On the right side of the web-page there is a link for “Jews and Civil Rights.” I don’t understand the relevance of this link. I thought the website was to become more educated about Martin Luther King jr. and not about the Jews and Civil rights? The currency of the page has also not been kept up. The most recent information posted is from 1998.

 

The purpose of this website is to inform people about Martin Luther King jr. but comes from a source that is not reliable and trying to portray King as a bad man. I would not use this information in any sort of research paper or a source of knowledge. I believe this web site is a perfect example as to why people should be careful about which websites they get their information from.

 

Logical Fallacies

The article I chose to write about is about Vermont’s consideration of lowering the legal drinking age limit. It is argued in the article that the current laws are not working and maybe by lowering the legal drinking age then it will prevent underage drinkers from binge drinking and driving while intoxicated. Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other organizations and lawmakers state that lowering the age limit will not help but only make matters worse.

Within the third paragraph, the author uses over generalization. The Mothers Against Drunk Driving state “the higher age limit has saved thousands of lives since the 1984 enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act.” This statement is very broad and not backed up with sources to provide the reader with a greater understanding of where the statistic came from and if it is reliable.

I also chose to write on the article “Arizona Weighs Bill to Allow Guns on Campuses.”  The article writes about lawmakers wanting to allow people to be able to carry concealed weapons at public colleges and Universities.

The author uses cause and effect in the article. Ms. Johnson, a Republican from Mesa, said, “she believes that the recent carnage at Northern Illinois University could have been prevented or limited if an armed student or professor had intercepted the gunman. The police, she said, respond too slowly to such incidents and, besides, who better than the people staring down the barrel to take action?”  This statement states that because students and teachers are not allowed to carry guns, the incident at NIU could have been prevented which is not a backed up statement.

Another fallacy used in the article is by using the either/or approach. It is evident with in the paper that the reader much choose whether or not they believe guns should be allowed to be carried on campus or not. It does not give the reader other choices that may be able to compromise both. 

"Middle Schoolers Get the Pill"

The question of whether or not middle school girls should be able to receive birth control pills and patches from the student health center is discussed in the article “Middle-Schoolers Get the Pill.”  The article supports this idea by saying that many of the girls are already sexually active and since there is no way of stopping them from making that decision then the situation can at least be improved by providing the girls with birth control and safe sex education. The Boston Globe sates that these young girls are not just being “handed” the pill but must “first travel a long-even arduous-road of counseling” in order to receive the pill. The girls are educated on the dangers of underage sex and urge them to wait until they are older and more mature. It is also stated that King Middle School has a high population of poor kids and immigrants. The school is now providing health services to lower class teenage girls who may not be able to afford private gynecologists.

The counter- argument presented in this article is that no eleven year-old should have sex at all. The argument challenges the argument that eleven year-olds should have the choice of sex and receive free birth control.  The girls are so young at this age to fully see the consequences that can occur in having underage-sex. It can be seen that everyone agrees that these girls are too young and should be urged to wait until they are older to have sex but also provides them with resources to avoid getting pregnant or a sexually transmitted disease.

One perspective I feel has been overlooked is the concern of the parents. The parents are left out through out the whole article. I think this is a major concern for many parents and something they should be involved in. The girls are still minors and the parents should be able to be involved in whether or not their daughters start taking the pill and should also have some influence in how they want to educate their daughters about underage-sex.