Governor Race

By Sam, Audrey, and Morgan

                The Midterm Election for Oklahoma is this Tuesday, November 2^nd 2010. This election Oklahomans can vote for candidates running for Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives. This election is a big milestone; both candidates running for Governor are women. This will be the first woman governor in Oklahoma’s history.  Jari Askins  was born in Duncan, Oklahoma; she is currently Oklahoma’s Lt. Governor, she has also worked in all three branches of Government. Mary Fallin was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, but was raised in Tecumseh, Oklahoma; currently she is an U.S. Representative. Fallin also served as Oklahoma’s first woman and Republican Lt. Governor. The candidates have very different views. Mary Fallin is the Republican candidate, while Jari Askins is the Democratic candidate. In class, we are reviewing ethics in someone’s argument. Fallin on her website states that she is a Tecumseh, Oklahoma native. When in all reality she was born in Warrensburg, Missouri; this is ethically wrong because it’s not telling the whole story. Fallin was raised in Tecumseh, Oklahoma but this does not give her the right to claim she is a Tecumseh native. Askins states that being Lt. Governor qualifies her for Governor, but Askins doesn’t state that Fallin was also Lt. Governor in 1995. When Askins states this she is not stating the other side of the story. One of Fallins campaign slogans is she wants to return to Oklahoma, and she loves Oklahoma. Askins states in one of her campaign ads she has never left Oklahoma implying she is more qualified for the Governor position and knows the “Oklahoma Way” when in all reality Fallin’s work in Washington and outside experience could make her more qualified. This Tuesday we will find out who Oklahoman’s believe is more qualified for the position of Governor.

Mary Fallin Bio

Mary Fallin Bio

Jari Askins Bio

Jari Askins Advertisement

Mary Fallin Advertisement

5 Ways to use Evidence Ethically

1. Consider the audience which sets up the tone of the writing style and what ways you can make your argument to effect the viewers.

2. Use a sufficient  amount of valid evidence. The evidence is needed to support the argument throughout the paper. When a writer uses valid evidence, it will build his credibility and increase the audience reading the paper.

3. When researching evidence always make sure to search databases before turning to the internet. People can get onto and access the internet so easily. Everyone has their opinions and will gladly let the world what they think before even thinking if they are correct about whatever they post. Heavily using internet sources make your argument have less credibility because no one knows whether or not the source the evidence was found was true.

4. The arrangement of evidence can make or break an argument as well. If the argument does not have the correct arrangement that allows the paper to flow and easily read, the writer will lose their audience.

5. Never rely too much on personal experience. Personal experiences are great ways to prove a point and better relate to the audience. But using just personal experiences with factual evidence is not a strong argument because there is no proof to support the claim.

Amy Hall, Taylor Vazquez, and Jennifer Dobie.

Rules of Using Evidence Ethically

Our top five rules of using evidence ethically are Rule Number One- Don't take stuff out of context. When you gather information make sure you stick with their point and not form your own opinion. Rule Number Two- Make claims that support your evidence. If you are trying to prove a certain point make sure your evidence and claim back each other up. Rule Number Three- Have a sufficient amount of evidence. You have to investigate your evidence fully and know the ends and the outs. Rule Number Four-Cite your sources. Citing your sources is one of the most important ones. It is important for everyone to know where found your information. also you would be able to look it back up easily if you needed to. Finally Rule Number Five- Do not make biast claims. It is important that you see both sides of the argument. Even if you do not totally agree.           Scribe- Courtney     Group Members- Daisha and Katie

Rules for Using Evidence Ethically

By: Morgan Greenwood, Audrey Shobert, and Sam Cave

1. Have rights to evidence and give credit.
     When you use a piece of evidence be sure to give credit to the source.  Also, be sure you have permision to use the source, for example from a database.

2. Check credibility of a source.
     When you use a source be sure that it is credible and correct.  Double check the information you get off of any website or book.

3. Do not bend and shape evidence.
     Using evidence honestly is important.  Don't make the evidence fit your claims.

4.  Photoshop is a no-no.
     Do not create evidence of your own with photoshop or other programs. It's dishonest and unethical.

5. Finding broad proof.
     Do not stick to only one point.  Be sure to use multiple points, and don't leave out something that may  be important just because it may oppose your claims.
    

Rules for Using Evidence Ethically

          Callie Ogilvie, Elliott Crawford, Carolynn Dahlfors

           1)      Don’t lie.

      When you’re trying to prove a point in an argument tell the truth. There’s no need to lie about something when you will probably just be found out later. More than likely someone that’s either listening or reading your argument will know that you’re not being the honest.

2)      Don’t rely on your personal experiences too much.

Something that personally happened to you can be very effective, especially when it comes to    the emotional part of the argument, but if that’s your only evidence then you apparently either your  argument is faulty or you just need to find something else to use as evidence too.

3)      Use material that firmly supports your point.

If you’re trying to argue that a duck can float on water then there’s no need to bring up the                  fact that Barack Obama is the president. You need to find papers and articles that talk about your subject clearly and thoroughly.

4)      Don’t take a source out of context.

Whenever you are quoting a text from another source you need to use it the right way.

Include the sentences around it if you have to, because more than likely people won’t know

what else the article says and they’ll have to assume for themselves. Plus you don’t need to be

using the text in any other way than it was originally intended.

5)      Don’t use patchwork writing.

Let us know what you think! Don’t use other people’s ideas the for your entire paper. The whole point is to let us know what your take on this argument is and for you to have your chance to prove something.

Facebook...Helpful and Annoying?

Dakota, Scott, and Brittany

Taking the World by Force! ....Facebook!

From Farmville to status updates, tagging to chatting, Facebook has become a part of everyday life. If you are not on Facebook, you might as well be a hermit.

Admittedly there are a lot of good things about Facebook, such as keeping up with friends and family, sharing memories, and even meeting new people. There are also a lot of bad/ extremely annoying things about Facebook.

1.) Farmville

            The game behind those annoying Facebook status updates. You may often find your friends fighting over whose farm is the best. Do not be alarmed, your friends are not real farmers.

(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=farmville)

Urban dictionary has a pretty good definition about how most people feel about this “game”...

If you do play Farmville, good for you! But I do not want to help you out by giving you a bucket of nails to build your fence. Nor do I want to help find the sad little brown cow you found in your cabbage patch a new home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odBDAcOEKuI

2.) Status…

            As far as Facebook is concerned, there are two statuses that we need to worry about

                        A.)Relationship Status-Yes it is very nice to know whether or not that cute girl in your biology class has a boyfriend or not. How could a relationship status be annoying? Well when you go on to little Miss Becky’s Facebook today and it says in a relationship, then tomorrow, she is single, the next day it is complicated, she is back in a relationship and loves the person by Thursday, and on Friday she is once again single and hopes that Johnny burns in hell…. Surely anyone can see that this kind of rampant changing in relationship could honestly be qualified as a cause of complete confusion with a mild case of whiplash!

                        B.) Status Updates on Your Wall- first of all we can all agree that updating your status is important enough. When you update your profile status to let people know you are coming back home or that something big has happened this is a wonderful feature. Even if, like a lot of us do, you put song lyrics as your status, you are in the clear as long as it is just once a day. If on the other hand you are someone who posts what you are doing, thinking, listening to, or even seeing every other minute you need to STOP! I do not care that you just say a bulldozer in construction Zone than 2 seconds later you see an ambulance at a hospital! Really? If you are on Facebook that much you need a new life… sorry J

Follow up on Dale Peterson

By: Elliott Crawford (scribe), Callie Ogilvie, Carolynn Dahlfors, Katie McCauley, Courtney Maye
 
     Dale Peterson has put out another ad, more less because he seems to enjoy the attention. This particular ad is  about the governors race in Georgia. This ad is utterly pointless, Dale Peterson is a man running for Agricultural Commissioner, in the state of Alabama. The point of the ad is to trash talk Georgia's old Governor King Roy Barnes, who announced this year he would be re-running for office. Personally i don't see what business Dale Peterson has sticking his nose in another states governor race, especially since he hasn't even won his yet. In the ad, Dale ask, "Do you know why they call him King Roy?", and then replies, " Because he thinks hes better than everybody else!". Then Dale States that "They need to send King Roy home to his castle where he cant do Georgia anymore harm.", and also claims King Roy Barnes, "sided with thugs and criminals". As comical as this is, i don't think it was right to make remarks about someone you have absolutely no involvement with politically, and in addition he seems to pull the facts right out of his ass. And as always Dale has his Trusty rifle with him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTHLTOmC45s      

Facebook Mistakes

By: Sam, Audrey, and Morgan

Facebook is only becoming more and more popular as the days go on. There are over 350 million Facebook users currently and that number is only increasing by the day. No one is deleting their Facebook account; people are only logging on to see what the Facebook craze is all about. Many people take what they see on Facebook very personally. Many people make social mistakes on Facebook, post stuff they don’t want one specific person to see, add someone that they really don’t know, or post a picture they really don’t want their Grandma seeing. Here are just a few of the many mistakes that can be made on Facebook:

1.       Facebook is a public networking site. Everyone can see your Facebook page, and this is not always a good thing. Your grandma, your boss, and even the University you are attending or applying for can see what is on your Facebook page. Sure a person can go in and change privacy settings, but this doesn’t always make the information as private as a person may want. This influential person seeing what is on your Facebook page is not always a good thing. Using bad grammar and short hand, or you and someone using profane language on your wall isn’t something you want your potential employer, grandma, or university seeing. We would also advise not to post status updates about illegal things you might be partaking in. Just remember to be conservative and considerate when posting and writing on Facebook.

2.       Pictures also cause many controversies when it comes to Facebook. People don’t want to see pictures of someone half exposed, or doing inappropriate things. People get tired of seeing a person’s pregnant stomach from two hundred different angles. Another pet peeve of many people is ultrasound pictures and pictures of kids when they are unclothed or naked. We get that parents want to show their kids off, but it’s one thing to present your kids in a nice conservative way, and only a few pictures of the kids. But an ultrasound picture or naked baby pictures are a private thing and they don’t need to be shared to the world. Also people do get updates when you change your profile picture and add pictures to an album, it gets quite annoying when you change your profile picture or add pictures six different times a day. People can also easily print pictures off of your Facebook, so even if you aren’t friends with someone who you think might be influential, they might still be able to see the pictures. 

3.       People take Facebook very personally. Someone doesn’t accept a friend request on Facebook; they may not be able to continue to be their friend in real life. Also if someone ignores a friend request once, don’t try to add them again; if someone ignores a person once, they are going to ignore that person again. Also if someone deletes someone, they deleted them for a reason don’t re-add them or throw a fit about it. Don’t add people you don’t know just to make your friends list have a higher number and appear friendly doing this isn’t friendly. A common saying is “It’s not official, until it’s Facebook official.” This saying can get old quickly, to make something official it does not need to be posted on Facebook. Say a person gets engaged; you are already engaged before you post it on Facebook, posting it on Facebook only lets the whole world see it. We’ve also seen our fair share of breakups over wall to wall posts.  Also don’t change your relationship status every 10 minutes; you can go from single, to in a relationship, to engaged all in one day if you wish. Changing your relationship status gets annoying to friends and people will not take your relationship serious anymore.

Sex-Ed?

Teaching Sex Education in a public high school is a controversy in itself, but when you throw a teacher in there who believes that you should save yourself and she's teaching the opposite of that. She argues that teenagers are going to have sex whether we tell them to or not, so why not prepare them? We as a group, totally agree with her. Teenagers are gonna be teenagers so why not help them be smart when they're having sex? Some schools make the teachers teach celibacy because it's in their contracts. So what do they do when their students come to them with problems about their sex life, can they not help them because if they did they might not be teaching celibacy.

Sex Ed...Counterproductive?

 By: Scott Tylenda, Dakota Miller, and Brittany Anthony

Teenagers are always going to have sex, we are never going to change that. But when looking at sex education programs in schools across the country, one cannot help but notice a fatal flaw in helping this age group be safe while engaging in intercourse. Abstinence.  

So how is abstinence the problem? When asked about preventing STDs and pregnancy, teachers must respond with abstinence as the only safe way. If they don't, start looking for a new job. That sounds like a problem, and is definitely misleading our youth. Abstinence is simply the only safety measure being taught to students in most of the country. If all kids are going to be abstinent, then hallelujah! Problem solved! But we all know that is ridiculous. Teaching abstinence alone is a waste of time. There are those who have made up their mind to be abstinent before it was taught to them, and hoping to convert the rest is just wishful thinking. They will probably be more likely to go out and have sex after some "stupid teacher" told them it was bad. We simply cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that our current methods do not work. They are only adding fuel to the fire.

So how to fix it? Comprehensive sex education. Give the facts, don't leave out important information. Condoms, birth control, STDs, the list goes on. Equip the students, don't blindly send them off with no knowledge of how to have safe sex. If a situation arises, we must be sure the kids of this country know how to handle it. Because the fact remains, our current teaching methods are only hindering this country's goal of lowering teen pregnancy and STD rates.

Hey kids, don't do the dirty!

By Tanner, Michael, and Jacqui

                In many schools, the only sex education students get is this: Don’t have sex. There’s no other way to prevent bad things from happening to you. Many of these abstinence-only schools tip toe around the dirty deets – Like, besides pregnancy, what could happen if we had sex? They don’t talk about contraception, STD’s, or anything that has to do with sex at all. They just say “Don’t have sex.” Hoping the students’ lack of knowledge of anything sexual will keep them from having sex. No one wants to jump into a black pit, especially if they don’t know what’s down there, right?

                Wrong. Most students don’t spend their entire day at school. They come home; watch TV, or read, or whatever the hell they want to do. Now, the media, in all its forms, doesn’t censor itself just because Junior might possibly be viewing. No, they broadcast whatever seductive or scandalous thing they want to: music videos that have sultry women dancing around the Pimp-daddy rapper, a steamy scene in a movie, or a graphic chapter in a novel. It doesn’t matter what it is. What matters is that teens are exposed to it all the time. Schools can’t completely monitor all that their students see.

                This being said, if a younger teenage boy sees something that makes his hormones go wild, he’s going to want to do something. If he only has the school’s abstinence-only teachings to go off of, he may not know about proper contraception, or even about masturbation. So, if he and little Susie decide that they’d like to try, even though it’s against everything they’ve been told, there’s really nothing stopping them.

                Then…. Oops. Susie is pregnant, and that boy has the clap. Why? No birth control, no condoms, nothing. The cycle of life is beautiful… until it’s pulling you out of school to watch baby.

                That’s why it’s so important that, while schools may teach abstinence only, they should at least teach about the dangers of STDs, the proper usage of contraception, and EVERYTHING that could happen if something does, indeed, happen. It’s better for students to be in the know. Look at the graph on page four of  this.  It shows the difference between abstinence-plus (which is the teachings of abstinence only PLUS the admittance that students will have sex, and the teaching of contraception and the dangers of STDs) and abstinence-only education.

Face it, teenagers have had, are having, and will have sex. That’s all there is to it. It doesn’t matter whether or not you tell them that the only way to keep any bad things from happening is to not have sex. Most of them are about as hard headed as an ox. They won’t listen, and will probably go ahead and do whatever they want. However, if they are shown the full picture, at least not as many of them will turn into this.

The Visitor on Library Lawn

By: Amy Hall, Taylor Vazquez, and Jennifer Dobie


Last week on September 29th, Oklahoma State University welcomed back a very infamous guest.  Pastor Matt, but known to the majority of the student body as Pastor Bob, got quite the audience when he preached his fire and brimstone to the students who listened.  When analyzing his argument and its appeal to an audience, all three parts of the rhetorical triangle were not present.  The pastor's word no doubt had a pathos appeal.  The main emotions from his audience was anger and maybe a mix of shock.  The students were outraged with his so called word of God.  His argument even left a girl in tears!  But what about ethos? Or logos?  Matt never tried once to build trust or credibility to his audience.  Not one student gained his trust or wanted to go pursue a stronger spiritual relationship after they heard him speak.  Which is any preachers goal when informing people about his religion.  No one had respect for the man as he damned everyone to hell either.  He definitely had an art of persuading people away from his views.  There were some truth in what he was saying, no one can deny that, which meant he has a logos appeal.  Regardless of the evidence he did provide, that still did not help his case.  Yes he presented bible verses that supported his accusations towards the students, but with out ethos his logos had could not stand up in his argument.

An argument will not be effective if the three rhetorical parts are not used properly.  You will not be able to captivate or convince an audience about your claim.  Each of the elements has a potential to affect other elements, like what happened with Pastor Matt's ethos and logos in his argument.