TOW #26 The Case Against Grades (Michael Thomson)

I would like to give a shorter introduction and spend more time analyzing the devices' impacts on readers.  

     My view of grades is rather negative, so in reading an article of favorite abolish-grades educational psychologists Alfie Kohn I discovered this article that he mentioned. Slate is an online publishing magazine that has great opinion pieces backed by current data, and this one, by Michael Thomson, is no exception. While not a sociologist himself, Thomson includes several statistics and expert opinions that augment his credibility. His purpose is to rethink the viability of grades evaluate the worth of keeping and abolishing them, with significant bias towards removing them. His article is not directed towards anyone in particular, I think it is a simple open opinion piece.
     Thomson uses a format of exemplification to make his points regarding grades. He makes a point of describing several schools and districts that have eliminated grading altogether, and then continues with analysis of how students' educational experiences have been changed as a result. For example, he describes the Summerhill model of education without grades, precisely how it looks to a student participant and teachers, and then offers a statistic about a similar school of the same design, the Sudbury Valley School, and its 80 percent college and 20 percent graduate school acceptance rates. By doing this, Thomson moves away from educational philosophy and provides real, applicable examples that can be analyzed and considered by his audience. By describing them with words that have positive connotations like "support" and "encourage," Thomson gives the impression that they are ideal learning institutions.
     Thomson begins the essay with an introduction to the problem of grading. He does this via statistics. "SAT reading scores are at a 40-year low, and one recent study ranked the U.S. 17th in education," he writes, and then concludes "It's becoming increasingly clear that the rigid and judgmental foundation of modern education is the origin point for many of our worst qualities." By coupling hard facts with analysis to introduce the problem, Thomson makes his subject of interest irrefutable and concrete, an issue that must be dealt with immediately and that directly concerns his audience.
     Overall, I think the essay did a solid job. There were one or two logical fallacies that connected studies that were significant independently but not when paired. The examples he found and compiled were really interesting, though.

Article

TOW #25 GE Advertisement

General Electric appeals to the American Dream in this advertisement.

My goals are to write in a cohesive format without obviously listing the required information. I would also like to focus on and go in depth about one or two strategies, instead of listing many.
   
     The ad above is for houses produced by the Levitt & Sons company just after World War 2. At this point in time, several millions of soldiers were returning home to their wives and girlfriends, and all at once needed places to live and start a family. This combined with greater American wealth at the time, led Americans to sprawling suburban communities with thousands of well-organized and similar houses. William Levitt created four standard models of a house that could be ordered in a catalogue, and, in assembly line fashion, constructed four enormous communities very inexpensively in a very short amount of time. His advertisements were of the first generation of American family appeal, using the image of the "nuclear family" looking for a normal, conformist life. Levitt's purpose in the advertisement is to appeal to the vast number of veterans he can persuade to purchase his services and products, and to convince them that his houses fulfill their future needs and desires.
     The first thing that one notices in the ad are the caricatures of the veteran and his wife. The man is clearly in his uniform from the war, and his wife is smartly dressed and clearly adoring of him. Both are smiling, rosy cheeked, and intimate. This is clearly an appeal to pathos, as Levitt wants viewers to consider themselves in the same positions as the characters in the ad: planning a new life is happy. Sketched in the dirt is another appeal to pathos and the subject of the ad: an appealing, average house. People of the 1950s thrived on nondescript conformity, and a symmetrical house sketched in the dirt, while not an accurate representation of the actual houses Levitt built, still conjures up feelings of that ideal "American lifestyle."
     While difficult to read, I believe the paragraphs at the bottom of the ad describe a soldier's need to make smart future plans for his family, especially before he leaves to further serve his country. General Electric, a partner of Levitt, includes small depictions of appliances and a brief description of its services to give the appearance of working for the consumer. It provides many new technologies to make life easier in this time of stress and war.
     Because of its emotional appeals, this ad is a form of propaganda. However, because Americans were so gullible when it came to pursuing the American dream, the advertisement is still effective.

TOW #24 The End of Anonymity (Erik Sofge)

Facial recognition has become much more prevalent and powerful in recent years. But is it ethical?

My goals are to have a more cohesive introduction/background information and to provide specific examples from the text to show the rhetorical devices.

     We've all heard of PRISM, the NSA program that invaded the privacy of millions of people by secretly surveying emails and social media accounts. Erik Sofge, in this article for Popular Science Magazine, examines the other less-controversial surveillance method utilized by the FBI: facial recognition. The FBI has been collecting information on criminals since 1924, ranging from the first index card and ink fingerprint records to DNA tests and a database of millions of mugshots for recognition. Facial recognition is exceptionally difficult, especially with low resolution security camera footage. However, in recent years the many algorithms contracted to the FBI from worldwide proprietary software companies have greatly increased computers' ability to decipher a tilted head, expressive features, and low light. While not usable in court because of the techniques success rate (in good conditions in hovers around 80% confidence in a criminal/suspect match), facial-recognition is still widely used and, with the information stored in social media, could become the best way to generate leads in an investigation. WHile Sofge stays rather neutral in reporting, his purpose is clearly to raise awareness about this surveillance technology and bring to light some if its more controversial aspects.
     The most obvious rhetorical strategy employed by Sofge is his use of statistics. His goal is to show the effectiveness and broad scope of facial-recognition investigation. For this reason, he uses facts like a database containing 3.5 million mugshots, a program that costs $1.2 billion, and a current 1% drop in accuracy per year (so more older photos can be used with confidence). Instead of just saying that the programs are massive or effective, Sofge supplies strong supporting evidence to convince us, and possibly engender a thoughtful reaction about the size of his described programs.
     Throughout the article Sofge also calls upon reputable experts from a variety of origins. He begins with an anecdote containing detective Jim McClelland from Cheltenham, PA, who describes the ways that facial recognition advances have made his job significantly easier. Sofge also quotes a CEO of a firm that develops the software about modern advances, as well as a professor who controversially used Facebook images to make a more comprehensive database of people. Such varied opinions on all aspects of the technology inform the reader and provide perspectives that support and refute the implementation of facial recognition. These act as support and concessions and, when paired with his objective statistics, made Sofge's article effective in accomplishing its purpose.