The Declaration of Independence- Reflection Blog

The Declaration of Independence serves an important part in the United States government. This famous document was written by Thomas Jefferson, who was a man of many professions. Apparently, he was an inventor, musician, architect, lawyer, surveyor, and botanist (Jefferson 120). John F. Kennedy said "I think this is the most extraordinary of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered in the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." (Jefferson 120). By reading the "Before You Read" segment in my book, I got a little bit of background information about Thomas Jefferson. This showed me a lot about him and from this I learned that he was very talented and smart (Jefferson 120). I think that if you look closely at The Declaration of Independence, you would easily be able to recognize both propaganda techniques and also some errors in faulty logic. For example, on page 122 Thomas Jefferson uses a propaganda technique to try and get his point across. He used the testimonial propaganda technique and in doing so he basically used a big name to intimidate people and to get his point across (Recognizing Propaganda). Thomas Jefferson makes reference to the King of Great Britain and says "The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states." (Jefferson 122). Another use of propaganda displayed by Thomas Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence is the use of glittery generalities. Glittery Generalities is when you use important sounding words that can neither be proven or disproved, for example words like "glad", "honest", and "good" (Recognizing Propaganda). An example of when Thomas Jefferson uses glittery generalities is when he says "for the public good", and this is a glittery generality because it is an important sounding word that can neither be proved or disproved (Recognizing Propaganda). No one knows what the public good is, so therefore it is a glittery generality. Thomas Jefferson uses this propaganda technique many times throughout The Declaration of Independence, and I think that it is used by many people. Thomas Jefferson also uses the bandwagon and the either/ or fallacy propaganda technique in The Declaration of Independence. The bandwagon propaganda technique is when you think that just because everyone else is doing it, then you should also do it (Recognizing Propaganda). I think that Thomas Jefferson uses the bandwagon technique in this document because he probably wants everyone to go along with what he is saying. I think he uses the bandwagon technique because the more people that think everyone else is doing something the more likely they will go along with it. I think that Thomas Jefferson uses a lot of propaganda techniques in The Declaration of Independence because it makes it a lot more persuasive and it can make things sound a lot better than they actually are. I think that Thomas Jefferson did a very good job in making The Declaration of Independence very persuasive because apparently it was good enough for us to keep it around all of this time.

Bibliography

Jefferson, Thomas. "Declaration of Independence." American Literature. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 120-124. Print.

"Recognizing Propaganda--Guide to Critical Thinking--Academic Support." 6 Mar. 2011. Web. 26. Sept.

The Crucible Act 4- Reflection Blog

In the final act of The Crucible, there are many unexpected twists and turns taken by some of the main characters in this play. As we read this story, we quickly found out that this play has a very religious based community. This play was written in the Puritan style, which means it is very much based around God and religion. Throughout this play, as I was reading I kept asking myself why these people would automatically assume people were associated with the devil when something happened that they did not have an answer to. For example, at the very beginning of the book when Betty faints they all automatically jump to the conclusion that she was calling upon the devil and was doing witchcraft and what not (Miller 5). I defiantly think I had a hard time understanding how in the world it was possible for people to approach things so ignorantly, but then I thought about the time period and about how back in the day, stuff like this happened every single day because we did not have the knowledge or technology to know what actually caused Betty to faint. Also, in addition to not having all of the resources and information we have today they were very based around the church. In today's society we are not as religiously based as communities back in this time period were, and I think that is another reason people made such ignorant assumptions about things they could not explain. By reading this play I realized just how church based times were back then, and this is where Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards comes into play. I think that Jonathan Edwards shows us the more strict side of religion in this story because of the tone of the narrator. It is written in a way that makes me think he is being very cold and strict, and to prove that a little bit more in this little story he talks about how all sinners deserve to be punished and how all sinners should not be allowed to live with the true Christians (Edwards 99). From my experiences at church, I have always been told that everyone sins, so for me to read about people being hung for sinning it is almost unbelievable. I think that this is one of the similarities between The Crucible and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God because in both of these stories we hear all about sinners and unfortunately, we also learn about the punishments that were given to anyone who was accused of sinning. Although Hands of an Angry God is written in a much more stern style than The Crucible, I think that both of these writings show us how important religion was back then and also how seriously sinning was taken back in the time period that these stories were written during. Personally I think that The Crucible is better for teaching us about how life was back in this time period because the author took the time to introduce the characters and showed us what actually happened verse what people believed to be happening.

Bibliography

Miller, Aurthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin Group, 1976. Print.

Edwards, Jonathan. "From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.

Journal #10- Persuade

I think that Mr. Langley should postpone the due date of our vocabulary assignment for many reasons. First off, I think that if the vocabulary assignment was postponed it would be better for everyone. It would be better for us as students because we would have more time to complete this assignment and the more time we have to complete it, the better quality the assignment will be. If all the students have enough time to do their homework I think it will make their grades better and if all of the students have good grades then it will make Mr. Langley look like a really good teacher. I think it is a win win situation if the assignment is postponed because it will make everyone happy. Also, as a junior in high school I know that almost all students are already very stressed out because of the amount of homework we receive on a nightly basis and if this assignment would be postponed it might lighten the load of homework on students. I know that for me, my homework for tonight is already going to take up at least an hour of my time and I am sure that Mr. Langley does not want to spend his night grading my homework, so we should just postpone it and make everyone's life a little bit easier. I have a quote I like to live by, and it goes "why do today what you can put off until tomorrow" and I think we should honor the way I live and postpone this vocabulary assignment. Finally, my last reason for why this vocabulary assignment should be postponed is that some students do not have the resources that are necessary for this assignment. Internet access is necessary for almost all of our assignments, and if a student does not have internet at home all of these assignments would be almost impossible. I really hope this assignment is postponed!

Speech to the Second Virginia Convention- Reflection Blog

In the Speech to the Second Virginia Convention, we are reading in a style that is different from the Puritan style we have been looking at recently. The Puritan style is much different from this new style that we see in this speech in many ways, but I think the most obvious way is that in the Puritan writing style, they relate everything to God and religion and in this new style of writing it is more of a logical approach and they have less of a religious view of things. This new writing style is called Rationalism, and this speech is a very good example of how the Rationalism writing style sounds. In the Puritan writing style, they refer to God a lot and they are all very religion based, and contrary to that we have Rationalism which is more of a logical way of thinking. For example, in this speech Patrick Henry says "If we were base enough to desire it, it is now to late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery." (Henry 118). I think that this passage shows the Rational style this speech was written in because he is basically saying, there is no way out of this for us so we should just go to war. I think this is rational because he was being very logical in the way he thinks about things. I think that it makes sense to go ahead and go to war if you already know it is going to happen. Another passage from this speech that really struct me as being a rational way of thinking was

The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field; Why do we stand here idle? (Henry 118).

To me, this passage was very rational sounding for many reasons. What Patrick Henry is trying to say in this part of his speech is that if we stand around and wait any longer, they are going to begin a war with us so we might as well be the ones that start the war because we would have some sort of an advantage over them. I think that this passage reveals the Rationalism writing style used by Patrick Henry because of his logical approach and way of thinking. I like reading in the Puritan writing style better than the Rationalist writing style because I think it is interesting to see how people acted back when religion was the center of everything. Patrick Henry showed us a lot of qualities that go along with the Rationalism writing style in his speech Speech to the Second Virginia Convention. I think that Rationalist writing styles became more and more popular over time because society became less and less religion based. For example, look at where we are today in society as compared to where we were years ago. Things have changed and the writing styles have also changed along with society.

Bibliography

Henry, Patrick. "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 114-119. Print.

Journal #9- Rational Approach

Being a girl, I am around emotional people about 90% of the time. I am used to the emotional emotions of girls because I am around it so much, and also because believe it or not I am a girl. I know that if something goes wrong for me, I tend to have a bad habit to freak out and probably be slightly annoying with my emotions. Although girls always seem to be more emotional than boys, I also think that boys at times can be pretty emotional. For example, I have this cousin of mine that is usually a good student and generally does well in school. He is one of those kids that the I am so jealous of that can barely study for a hard test and still get an A. This year he is a freshman at the awesome Pleasant Plains High School, and he decided to take Spanish 1. I have been taking Spanish for 3 years now, so basically you can say I am a professional. Anyways, he is used to getting good grades in class without doing much studying and when he started taking Spanish he was blown away. He was kind of freaking out because he has been able to do good in classes his whole life without much effort, and then Spanish comes along and kind of caught him off guard. He was emotional because he was for the first time in his whole life, struggling to get a good grade. I solved this little problem of his by being rational and awesome. I tutored him and tried to help him better understand how to do his homework and now he is doing better in that class. I think I am pretty amazing for being able to help out my little baby cousin with his Spanish and I solved his emotional problem with my super cool rational thinking skills. This is a great story about a girl and her cousin.

Journal #8- Autumn

Autumn is a lovely time of year. I like autumn because it is football season and because of all of the bonfires that are going on. I like being able to wear a sweatshirt and jeans sitting by a fire playing never have I ever with all my closest pals. I also like autumn because of Halloween. I love Halloween because of all of the haunted houses that are going on and they are so fun to go to! This year I plan on going to many haunted houses with all of my friends. This year will be my first year of not going trick or treating on Halloween night, and after 16 years I think I'm finally ready to move on. Another reason I like autumn is because it is cold, but it is not like snowy and freezing. It is nice weather most of the time and it is perfect weather to watch football in. I love going to football games with my friends, and I also love going to watch my little brother play on his football team. I am really excited for this autumn because of all of the fun things I plan on doing! Although I am really excited for autumn, summer is by far my favorite season of the year. I like summer better than autumn because in the summer, I am worry free and mostly because I do not have to go to school. I hate school a lot, and unfortunately autumn is the season in which school starts. The only reason I do not completely hate autumn is because of homecoming and football games and Halloween and bonfires. For once, I am actually super duper excited for autumn this year. Oh and how could I forget that my all time favorite part of autumn is the pumpkin pie! Thanksgiving is in autumn and I absolutely love pumpkin pie, so therefore I kinda love autumn a little bit.

Journal #7- Bullying

I think that bullying is a serious problem in both middle schools and high schools everywhere. I have been on both ends of bullying before, and I can honestly say that neither of them is very fun. Being bullied is obviously not fun, but neither is being the bully. When ever I do something to someone to hurt their feelings, I feel really bad about it and sometimes I even get to the point where I can not go to sleep without calling and apologizing to them. I think that everyone is made fun of or laughed at during some point in their life, and sometimes I think people can be a little bit too sensitive about certain things. For example, if someone makes a joke or says something sometimes certain people take it way too seriously and its really annoying. Although I think they take things too seriously, I also think that if you know someone is going to be upset if you say that then you should just keep the comment to yourself. Bullying can cause serious damage to a persons life and can also affect the way they look at themselves. I think that bullies also have a difficult time because there is no way you can be so mean to someone and not feel remorseful about it. I used to be really mean back in middle school and I know that after the fact I would always at least feel a little bit bad about it. Luckily, in high school I developed a soul and I started being nice to people. Sometimes I like bully Abby Ulrich because it is really fun. In seventh grade I nick named her "Smellrich" and it has stuck like glue! I think that me and Abby are really good friends because we both like to bully each other. Its similar to a hate-hate relationship. But it is okay when we bully each other because we both know we are just joking and that is why she is my friend.