Our group plans on convincing the audience that Living Learning Centers here at TCU are a bad idea because they keep our campus from becoming diverse, they separate the campus instead of integrating it, exclude members of a certain group if they aren’t able to actually live in the LLC. Our group plans on using visual aids as a strategy for making our argument. So far the ideas that we have come up with are humorous or satirical. We choose to take this approach because our audience is generally college students, and humor is a good way to reach a group like that. We are using pathos to make our argument by appealing to the audience’s emotions, doing this by visually communicating our argument.

Authors not- humerous piece

Author's Note for humerous piece.
For my humerous piece, I used a picture of a beached whale who died from the recent drug war while trying to smuggle drugs across the border into Colorado and a group of people around it saying "Whale thats a bummer." The ironic thing about the whale dying by smuggling drugs to Colorado is that it didnt die from being out of the water, it died from the drug war. I decided to use a whale instead of humans becuase I didnt want to make my humerous picture offensive in any way. I think that most of the possible ways I could have taken this humerous piece could have been seen as offensive since the subjust involved drugs and a forign country. Origionally I had the whale just across the border, but as I discussed it with my group they told me I should put the whale in Colorado. I also thought it could be a good idea to have the whale die as soon as it crossed into the Mexican border because of all the murders going on, but I thought that could be seen as offensive.

Author's note- oped

Author's note:
So far my oped is just a planned out overview of what i'm going to write about. As of right now, I have background information the origional article, A stand point on the issue at hand, and a pretty good idea about how I am going to connect them all together. Next I am going to work on putting my ideas down and further explaining my view on the issue. While writing this, I was having a hard time figuring out how to make my oped different than my letter to the editor. To make the two different I decided to look further into the laws and background that have made the drug issues into what they are today, and how Colorado, individually, can help out the issue. I still have a lot of work to do on this piece but I think that so far I have a pretty good idea about where I'm heading with it.

op-ed prewrte

After reading several op-eds from the Denver Post, I found that the general tone coming from the editors are all very different. In articles dealing with politics and legislation, the tone seems to be intelligent, composed and based on reason. These articles include opinions, but do not forwardly cut down the actions or words of others. They are also supported with facts and evidence. Other op-ed articles from this venue, dealing with recent topics or actual events that have recently taken place carry a much different tone. These articles are argumentative, and put down the opinion and actions that others have taken. They hold a strong opinion, but do not necessarily back it up with factual evidence, but personal stories, feelings, and events instead. They seem less intelligent and much more uptight. However, the assumed audience for both types of op-ed articles is the same. Many of the articles deal with various current issues that take place in Colorado, therefore an audience would most likely consist of Coloradoans or people that are interested in the politics and events that take place in Colorado. Also, the op-eds in this venue mostly deal with current issues that are taking place which would mean the audience is concerned with things that are going on in the world. It is not a blog, or newspaper that references only one area of interest which means the reader is looking to obtain a full coverage of news and not just news about a certain issue. This venue will be a suitable venue for my op-ed because my topic deals with the Coloradoan culture, and relates current issues to one another. It deals with the recent drug war, politics, and laws that are being put into place on both the state, and national level. The interesting this about the pieces in the Denver Post is that most of them deal with money, education, or legislation.
The specific identifiable issue that I am going to focus on is how Colorado has been using their money to fight the ongoing Colorado drug war, and how this is helping the recent drug problems that Mexico has been dealing with. I think this is a good topic because it directly relates to the effects that Mexico’s drug war has been having on the US, and how our own policies and money can help them in their recent situation. It takes the article that I am focusing on and looks into the background of the issues at hand, which then draws a direct connection to how it relates to the future.
The course of action that I am gong to take to address my issue is going to be to give background information regarding the drug problems in Colorado, then talk about how they relate to the drug war going on n Mexico, and lastly discuss what can be done by Coloradoan legislature to help Mexico in their war.
I think that the most effective rhetorical appeal for this article would be logos, to appeal to the readers logic or reason. I think this will be effective because will support my argument wth reason and evidence.
Believe that facts and hard evidence will best support my points because my article will deal with the law and politics.
I will have to research the laws Colorado has to fight drugs and look into what is currently going on in Mexico’s drug war.

letter to editor

Dear editor,
I was pleased to see that The Denver Post's March 26th editorial "Drug’s not just Mexico’s issue" presented a variety of diverse key facts that are usually omitted in the debate on whether or not Mexico’s drug issue should be considered an issue of our own as well. It was pointed out the violence that has been taking place during the drug wars across the border have started to cross over to the United States, with numerous reported kidnappings and murders not only taking place in boring states, but also as far as Atlanta. Because these violent issues, and many others, it is safe to say that the drug war has indeed become a problem of the United States. Because of these problems that the US has recently faced I agree that something does have to be done by our government to end the drug fight, however, the steps that we are taking towards an end to these wars may not be the most effective. Part of the problems that are taking place across the border are actually due to the drug problems that we have here in the US. By stopping these problems first, we will be able to focus our money and time on eliminating Mexico’s drug problems in their country alone. Therefore, the first step in fighting this drug war would be eliminating form the US. I agree with your statement that the Colorado government in particular, has not taken the proper steps in fighting drug problems. Instead of focusing on ending current addictions, we should transfer our focus to fight drug sales in the first place. I agree that putting harder consequences on those involved in the drug environment would be a perfectly edible first step.
However, I believe that by the United States government merely providing stimulus money as a means of protection from the drug war entering in our country will do more harm than good. First of all, Mexico’s government might consider the idea of relying purely on our “charity” money to fight the war instead of creating ideas of their own that would provide the intelligence to fight this war from the inside out. By providing money and troops to the Mexican government, we are basically telling the already faulty government, that relying on troops and money from another country is the way to solve your internal problems. This could potentially have minimal benefits for the time being, but as for the future, we will have to support our tactis used before and fish them out of all their problems using our money and troops. A better way to help fight this war from an outside country, would be to help them produce an intelligent plan to stop drug violence, and drug problems altogether.
Sincerely,
Kristen Wilson

Authors not- unit two

Authors Note for final draft:
My writing process for this project basically started with research, followed by a short and not complete rough draft, and then my final paper! I felt that I was abl to find really good sources for this paper, and they they helped me understand the topic, therefore when it came to writing the paper, I didnt have too much difficulty becuase I understood what was going on. I feel that I could have done a better job drafting this parer and getting it editied by my peers or possibly the writing center.

The most recent draft that I have completed is very different than the last draft that was revised because I have completely taken my topic in a different direction. My last topic dealt with how New York Fashion Week and New York Socialites were connected and influenced by each other. With this topic, I was having a hard time connecting all of my sources together, and finding sources that related to the topic. I decided to come up with a topic that would provide much more research material, and actually had an evident connection. Thus, I choose to take my topic in the direction of relating New York fashion week to the current recession, and providing research materials that connect the two topics. I found materials that voice a designers opinion, some that voice the sponsors opinions and some that voice the opinions of the fashionistas, or socialites. These sources all, of course, deal with the idea of New York Fashion week being affected by the recent economic conditions.