Arguments

"Abortion in the United States: A Statistical Study." Abortion: An Eternal Social and Moral Issue. Sandra M. Alters. 2006 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 37-60. Information Plus Reference Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

"Attitudes Towards the Legalization of the Use of Marijuana." Crime and Punishment: Essential Primary Sources. Ed. K. Lerner and Brenda Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 73-75. Global Issues In Context. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

"End the Juvenile Death Penalty." The Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2002. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. .

The first article is about abortion statistics. It shows a decreasing rate of abortions, and gives many statistics about how many women seek abortions. The article says that women normally give three reasons for choosing an abortion: "about three quarters say that having a baby would interfere with their work, school, or other responsibilities; about two thirds say they cannot afford a child; about one-half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner."

Abortion is a hot-topic issue in America and I support it. The government should not be able to control a woman's body, keeping it illegal or unattainable would increase "back alley" abortions, and it will decrease children growing up in poor and neglected environments. In addition, some studies suggest that legal abortion leads to decreased crime rate.

The second article is about the perception of marijuana in American culture. Marijuana is a highly illegal, claimed dangerous drug that gives users a high. It was made illegal in 1970. Since that time, a good percentage of Americans supported its legalization. There are studies that claim that marijuana is carcinogenic, addicting, and dangerous. For each of these studies, there is a study claiming that marijuana is safe and non-addicting. In conclusion, it is very difficult to argue marijuana on the basis of scientific studies, but whether or not the government has the right to regulate marijuana is an issue of civil liberties.

I am in favor of legalization. Marijuana isn't more harmful than alcohol or tobacco, legalization would lead to less drug related crimes, it possesses many medical benefits, and it would provide a source of additional tax revenue. The U.S. would greatly benefit from legalizing marijuana.

The third article is about how the Supreme Court declined to reconsider a decision made 13 years ago permitting the juvenile death penalty. This shows how adamant the Supreme Court is about the decision that was made to keep the juvenile death penalty illegal. Juvenile death penalty is capital punishment on those who are under 18 years of age.

I am against the juvenile death penalty. A child who is not old enough to go to war, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and even drive cannot make a decision that deems capital punishment. Capital punishment does not ward off other crimes and is ultimately ineffective. A child is not intellectually mature enough to take full responsibility for his actions. This is a legal precedent that lead to juvenile detention facilities. Allowing the juvenile death penalty is the hypocrisy of law and is illegal.

iPhone vs the Droid Bionic

iPhone 4GS

The iPhone 4GS is Apple’s newest smartphone. It was announced on October 4^th and just recently started being sold. New features include Siri, increased performance, a better camera, 1080p HD video, iOS 5, iCloud, a retina display, and improved FaceTime. All of these features lead to the explosive sales of Apple’s new phone. It went so far as to save Apple’s stock from dipping below $390 per share. The phone exhibits the characteristic physical perfection of previous apple products: a sleek design that also features utility. The front of the phone shows only a single button: a home button. On the top, there is a sleep button. On the sides there are volume and lock buttons. This is a mystic combination of buttons that creates the greatest utility. The phone fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. Additionally, the screen is within reach of your thumb at all times, but also allows for two handed use if it is preferred. The back of the phone features a camera and the apple logo. All of these features combined create the iPhone 4GS. Apple is expected to come out with sleek products that have minimalistic features. The iPhone 4GS does not disappoint.

Droid Bionic

The Motorola Droid Bionic is iPhone’s latest competitor. It touts improved performance, a large screen, and some unique software. The Bionic, like the 4GS, takes its design from its predecessors. It has very clean cut edges and chrome accents. This makes the device look far more masculine than the iPhone, which appeals to a much smaller group of people. On the top, there is a power button and a headset jack. On the front of the phone Is a camera. On the side there are two ports. These ports make it a challenge to properly hold the phone when plugged in. On the other side of the phone are two volume buttons. On the back is a camera. There is nothing on the bottom of the phone. One thing the droid trumps the iPhone on is it’s absolutely enormous screen. The screen measures 4.3 inches from corner to corner. The Droid line does not appeal to as wide of an audience as the iPhone, but it does offer a unique look. Some people appreciate the look of the Droid more, albeit a primarily male tech-junkie audience.

The Perfect Laptop for College Students

I am evaluating laptops for college students. This merits evaluation because many college students must buy laptops for college and are unaware of what is truly necessary for a basic laptop. College students use laptops for a plethora of reasons: note taking, organizing, emailing, browsing the web, and various major-specific things. Many students pay too much for laptops and will never fully utilize the computing power of their laptops. Others pay too little and must deal with sluggish performance until they buy a new laptop. Also, computer hardware specifications and prices are constantly changing, so new evaluations are necessary every few months to a year. According to Moore’s law, the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every two years. In lay man’s terms, computing power doubles every two years. This creates the need to reevaluate laptops very often. Lastly, essential programs such as Microsoft Office, and Windows Operating System are coming out with new version very often. These programs have different requirements from their previous versions and quickly become essential to own. Therefore, a college laptop merits evaluation.

Laptops for college students would fall under the laptop selection category. I would compare laptops against other laptops to pick a superior laptop. For example, I would compare a Dell to a Gateway using various criteria such as price, power, and appeal.

Considering the many parts to a laptop and many different uses, there would be many criteria. First you must choose an operating system. This will be a standoff between Mac and PC. Although there are many other operating systems, they are only useful to those who already know enough about laptops to not need to read my evaluation. Second, you must choose the proper amount of RAM. RAM is Random-access memory and represents the amount of information your system can retain at once without reduced speeds. Third, you must choose the proper processor. A processor controls the amount of information that can be dealt with at one time. Fourth, you must choose a suitable hard drive. All of your system’s information is stored on a hard drive. Fifth, you must decide on a video card. Video cards process everything you see on the monitor. Sixth, you must decide on a brand. I will be evaluating the most popular brands: Apple, Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and Sager. Seventh, you must consider the appeal of the laptop. Eighth, the price must be considered. Lastly, you must choose a proper monitor size. All of these criteria are essential for choosing a proper laptop, making choosing a laptop above the pay grade of the average college student. This is my inspiration for writing this evaluation. One of the problems I could run into is the social aspect of laptops and certain preference. Many people have a preference to Apple laptops because of the social influence. Apple computers are far more popular than windows, but far less efficient. That being said, even some knowledged people prefer Apple laptops to their Windows alternative.

The Perfection of my Blog

The design of my blog is easy to read and appropriate for a college classroom about Rhetoric and Writing. The blog uses a serif font for easy reading of longer paragraphs. The font size is optimized for the internet. I also use black font to create a natural contrast from the light background and increase readability. I used a serif font because they are easier to read in long paragraphs. Sans serif fonts are more eye-catching but are much more difficult to read in length. The information is assorted into paragraphs by topic for easy reading. The entries also have headings that show what each reading is about. The colors are neutral and have a contrast that is strong enough to read easily but flat enough to reduce the strain on the eyes when looking at items of high contrast. Lastly the blog title and layout expresses who I am well. It is a very plain blog with a few birds in the top right and a sarcastic title. This represents my sarcastic attitude and my goal of becoming a more concise writer. That is not to say that my bog is perfect. Being a graphic designer, I see many flaws in my blog. I don’t like the length of my blog title. Also, it includes my name which is clearly visible on other parts of my blog, creating unnecessary repetition. Considering its flaws, it still does accomplish its purpose. It is very well aimed at its audience. The purpose of the blog is clear.

[And now I redesign my blog]

My rough blog is now my final blog. First thing that I did was fix my time. It was about three hours off from the regular time. Then I had to change my blog title to something equally sarcastic but more concise. I chose ‘Does my blog title go here?’ I decided to drop the name on the end and reword it to be a little more concise. Then I removed my ‘Followers’ from the blog. I wasn’t using this feature and it was simply taking up space. After that I wrote a very short about me and put it on my blog as to not seem as anonymous. Then I fixed all of the blog titles: some of them didn’t even have titles.While doing this, I noticed that the formatting in some of my posts was off. Some fonts change randomly for a non-aesthetic reason. I fixed this. My redesign was inspired by Google and WolframAlpha. Both sites accomplish a lot with a very concise design. Google is literally a blank page with nothing but the essentials. WolframAlpha is one of the most powerful computing engines on the internet but their main page is more simple than most sites that do much less. This inspired me to remove a lot of extras from my blog. If Google and WolframAlpha can contain the amount of information they do in such little space, I should be able to shorten up my blog a little. The choices I made consciously contribute to the larger rhetorical situation I am creating by being more concise and more consistent. I am going for a neutral blog that is concise and easy to read. My choices removed many errors, made my blog more concise, and did not remove from the identity of the blog. Also, these choices satisfy the criteria for an English 15 blog because what I did fixed many visual faux pas. I even went through all of my grammar and fixed the mistakes I found. An English 15 blog is expected to be visually simple, easy to read, and consistent, and my changes helped to complete this criteria.