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The Problem of Describing Trees


The argument of this poem is that it is very challenging to describe trees and that words are not the most successful way to describe them.  Hass even says "There are limts to saying,/ In language, what the tree did.   Although he begins his poem by attempting to describe the trees by saying the "aspen glitters in the wind" and "the leaf flutters, turning" towards the end of the poem he starts to say that the words are unable to do a sufficient job of describing the tree.  At the end of the poem he describes the tree very vaguely by saying "the aspen doing something in the wind" to demonstrate how it is difficult to find the right words to accurately describe the trees.


Dance with me, dancer.  Oh, I will.
Who is the speaker, and who is he addressing?
The speaker is the poet, and he is addressing the tree that he is trying to describe. I'm not done this...

unedited four letter word project

PLAY

Quiz 4

Question:
What is truth value? (Remember that J. Anthony Blair explains that an expression has truth value if it can be affirmed or rejected.)

In The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments J. Anthony Blair says that if a statement can be affirmed or rejected then it has truth value.  He also says that the truth value is determined by the "propositional content." At first when I was reading this I thought that Blair was saying that truth value was simply whether a statement was true or false, therefore I thought the statement had to be more of a fact than an opinion.  Now I realize that if a statement has truth value it does not necessarily mean the statement is a fact, it could be someone's opinion.  If I were to say "This hot chocolate is too rich", another person could either agree with me and affirm my statement or they could disagree and reject.  This means that a statements truth value could be different for two people.  Truth value could apply to a fact.  If it does, then everyone should have the same reaction to the statement whether it is rejection or affirmation.  But the statement could also be an opinion that can be agreed with or not.  In this situation, the truth value differs from person to person.

A sentence is like...

To me a sentence is almost like a cake.  It starts out with random ideas, and words, and meaning; like a cake starts out with many ingredients that add certain textures or tastes to the cake.  The sentence/cake starts out in a raw, unpolished form.  But once all of the ingredients or ideas have been brought together and baked, or put together in the form of a sentence you get a wonderfully delicious end product. 

Are you ever afraid to write?

Am I ever afraid to write? I am not afraid of the act of writing, it is not like it is going to harm me.  I usually write what comes to my mind, in a simple way.  I'm not afraid to write essays for school, even though they usually bore me to tears.  I guess I am afraid to write creatively sometimes.  I get nervous that what I think is good, creative, maybe funny, or maybe meaningful writing will not be perceived this way.  I usually shy away from creative writing because I don't think of myself as a very creative person and I guess you could say that I am scared to take a risk with my writing. The judgement that would be received after someone read my creative reading is enough to make me shy away from trying to add some more personality to certain things that I write.

Ipad v. Magazines

In this video a baby is looking at an Ipad and is able to control and therefore in the child's mind the Ipad "works."  When she looks at the magazines, and points to things and turns pages and nothing happens. she declares that the magazines do not work.  This is relevant to a composition class because it shows how writing spaces are changing and have more or less importance depending on the generation you were raised in.  For this baby and many others, magazines will be viewed as pointless and unnecessary when devices like Ipads are available.  The creator of the video uses text on the screen, a newer writing space (compared to magazines), for the viewer to even better understand the purpose of this video.

CAN IMAGES DO WHAT WORDS CAN?

Can images make an effective argument or get a certain point across they way one can state their opinion or support their arguments with words?  Images can definitely make an effective argument if the person looking at them is intelligent to understand what is being displayed.  Similarly words can make a strong argument if the listener understands the meaning of the words in the way they are being used.
        I think that images can do what words do, and even do a better job of it in certain situations.  It depends on what they are trying to argue or convince someone of.  Some people are impacted more by being able to actually see pictures of whatever someone is trying to convince them of, where as some understand the argument just as well with words.  I think that the combination of words and images makes the strongest argument and reaches a larger audience than an argument of just words or just images.  The two together can be used to better explain each other. 

FIRST THOUGHTS

I keep thinking about my project 3 and I would tell you what my next rhetorical move would be if I knew.  I am having a hard time making myself sit down and concentrate on writing this paper.  I keep changing my mind on the place I want to write about and how I feel about this place.  I really need to make up my mind so that I can start making these rhetorical moves.