should we really feel stupid?

The reading about academic writing spoke to me because it applies to all students, especially those in college.  When we were in elementary school, the teachers really made a big effort to help us understand the material better so we could go onto the next grade level.  There were parent-teacher conferences and many people to help us succeed in our early academic careers.  As we got older, the help lessened a bit so we could learn to teach ourselves on our own.  By the time high school came around, we did not receive much help because we were being prepared for college and the teachers were trying to get us to accept the responsibility for our own actions.  Now that we are in college, some professors no not care if you cannot understand what they are teaching.  Their reasoning is this is how the real world is and we have to learn how to find the answers ourselves because no one will sit down with you and help you understand a proposal at work, it is your job to define it.  In a way, it makes sense, but wouldn’t it be better if they did help us more?  Don’t get me wrong, our books are for the most part pretty easy to understand, but the professors sometimes love to hear themselves talk and are instead focusing on how they sound rather than how we are understanding it.  They throw in as many big words into their lecture as they can and they make us feel dumb for not understanding them.  Granted, we are at a higher academic level than we were a year ago, but we have no gone through grad school or even gotten our 4 year degree yet so why are we expected to understand what they are talking about the first time?  We shouldn’t feel stupid for not understanding someone with a phd the first time, otherwise we wouldn’t need to be in school, right?

Pathos in The Happiness Project

The reading I chose to talk about was the chapter, which talked about pathos.  By definition, pathos is the part of an argument that evokes emotion, in other words, it is the part that makes you feel a certain way.  Ethos, pathos, logos, and even kairos are important to all use when making any type of statement, but pathos is the easiest to work with.  Pathos applies to everything in life as cliché as it may sound, it is actually true.  Most books that you read for pleasure appeal to at least one emotion.  My favorite book at the moment is called The Happiness Project, which is essentially a journal that is kept by a woman over a period of 1 year.  For each month she has goals to work on one area of her life that she feels she can make herself happier in.  For example, the month of February was dedicated to working on her marriage, and she bought books to help strengthen her marriage.  She did a lot of research for about 6 months before writing her book as well.  In different parts of the book, pathos becomes apparent because the low points in her year appeal to your emotions.  To be more specific, there is a part in the book where she is working on her marriage and she breaks one of her own rules and snaps at her husband.  You tend to feel bad for her because she is trying really hard to meet all of her goals, but she is only human.  Throughout the book the same thing occurs whether it is working on her parenting, or coming to the realization that she cannot do everything.  There is a great part in the book, which gave me a great realization for my own life where she talks about how everyone can try the same hobbies, but not everyone will have the same hobbies.  In other words, try as many hobbies as you can, but yours will differ from others, and that is what makes you unique from other people. 

me(:

I am from Fremont, California so the Tempe heat was a big change for me first semester.  I love to write, english has always come easy to me and I enjoy it far more than math.  I love to read from time to time, I love to sketch and I find art fascinating.  I used to be very passionate about horseback riding when I was a kid, and I still am, there is just no time to do it, it is a difficult hobby to keep up with.  When I was 16 I got into ballroom dancing and I fell in love with it at a very young age.  My parents took lessons first and they would bring my brother and I all the time to their lessons.  Dancing is my safe place that I go to when I am upset and, as cliché as it may sound I can’t help but smile when I am dancing.  I have a golden retriever back home who I absolutely adore, he even looks out for me when I am away.  He was originally supposed to be the family dog, but I am the one who walks him and pays the most attention to him so he quickly became my dog.  His name is Tucker, and it is one of the coolest feelings that he pays special attention to me when I come home.  He follows me around the house and knows I will give him more food and attention because I feel guilty going to school out of state.  I wish I could have brought him to college with me, my floor would have loved him!