Analysis: Women’s Rights are Human Rights

Hillary Clinton presented the speech, Women’s Rights are Human Rights, at the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women. Her immediate audience consisted of women who were already united in a common cause, that of promoting women’s rights as being an essential, and overlooked aspect of human rights. Despite this, her actual audience, the people who she wished to persuade with her message were the male leaders of the world who “question the reason for this conference,” and those “who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe.” Clinton employs various premises throughout her speech, but I would like to focus on the process premise of the emotion, guilt; the cultural premise of the triumphant individual; and the content premise of reasoning from symptoms.

The process premise of guilt is defined as an appeal to our sense of moral responsibility, usually by creating the realization that we have violated some moral rule or code of conduct. Clinton shares some disheartening facts concerning the number of women who are illiterate or live in poverty. She then continues to connect these same women in the minds of the listeners to their own mothers, daughters and wives by referring to them as caretakers, and describing their daily activities (cooking, cleaning, raising families, working, etc). She then returns to the idea that these women are being treated unjustly, are dying from preventable diseases, are being subjugated by their male family members and are denied the basic rights of self government. The male audience members should be feeling pretty guilty, either personally if they have advocated for any policies that might have encouraged these circumstances, or vicariously as a member of the male portion of the population which are promulgating this cultural phenomenon.

The cultural premise of the triumphant individual concerns the parable of the humble individual who works hard and eventually attains or even exceeds their goals and ambitions. Clinton uses this premise in her speech when she speaks of the women who she has met around the world who are working (despite government and cultural suppression) towards bettering their own lives and the lives of their families. Examples that she gives are the women who helped end apartheid, and the women in India who are creating businesses by purchasing milk cows, thread or rickshaws. I believe that this premise is especially useful in persuading men who may believe that women are weak, unenterprising or unmotivated. It also serves to inspire the other women listening to return home and encourage their peers to take action.

The content premise of reasoning from symptoms is defined as the practice of identifying a series of symptoms and then drawing a conclusion from them. Near the end of her speech, Clinton listed a series of human rights violations that strictly apply to females. She uses this list to imply that these issues are overlooked when discussing human rights, and that human rights so often refer only to men’s rights. The symptoms are the gross mistreatment of women, the cause is the cultural idea of inequality, and her proposed cure: the elevation of the world’s women to that of equals.

The non-verbal aspects of this speech that stood out to me the most were first off Clinton’s bright pink suit. It said, “hey! I’m a woman! I can wear pink if I feel like it, I am not bound by men’s fashions and expectations.” This tied in with her overall tone that women are equal to men, and should not be expected to play by their rules in every case. Another aspect was the way in which Clinton swiveled her head from left to right in between each statement, ensuring that each portion of the audience felt that she had noticed them, and was speaking to everyone there. Lastly, setting the last portion of her speech into a list format (using repetition!) allowed the audience time and opportunity to cheer and clap after each point was made. If she had given this list at the beginning of her speech, it would not have been as effective, as the audience was not all pumped up over the topic yet, and there might not have been any cheering, or if there had been, it would have detracted from the bulk of her message, which was sober rather than evangelical. Overall, this was an effective speech, but I believe it could have been more effective with a more dynamic speaker. Clinton’s voice was too monotone throughout much of the speech, and did not betray enough emotion over this important issue.

Works Cited

Clinton, H. R. (1995, September 5). Women’s Rights are Human Rights. Speech presented at U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session, Beijing, China. Retrieved March 8, 2012 from http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hillaryclintonbeijingspeech.htm

SeanMichaelLeonard (2008, March 11). Hillary Clinton in Beijing, China - September 5, 1995. Retrieved March 8, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkarsUszRfg

Debate Argument: Anti-Legalization of Marijuana

Legalization of marijuana would not eliminate the need for drug control and enforcement.

• Minors make up a good proportion of marijuana users. 24% nationwide, and as high as 40% in some states.
• Marijuana is not the only drug in use, and these other non-legal drugs would still be policed, just as they are today.
• The DEA still preforms sting operations for selling cigarettes to minors, they wouldn't miss a chance to do the same for any other regulated substance.
  Unless marijuana is legally made available to children and is unregulated, a ‘black-market’ would still exist, as well as all of the corruption and crime that surrounds any illegal activity.

Works Cited:

National KIDS COUNT Program. (2010). Marijuana use by age group (Percent) – 2008-2009. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies.. Retrieved from http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.aspx?ind=40

Operation Counter Strike Aims to Halt Illegal Cigarette Sales to Minors. (2011, September 28). Fox News. Retrieved from http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/investigative/operation-counter-strike-aims-to-halt-illegal-cigarette-sales-to-minors-9-28-2011

SPAR #6: Speed Limits

Speed Limits should be abolished on Interstate highways.

Claim: Driving faster will save everyone time and money.

• It is about 5 miles on I-5 from the Harvard exit to the UCC exit.
• Driving 85 mph rather than the speed limit gets you to UCC one minute faster.
• That’s a half an hour of extra sleep every school term! More seriously, this adds up a lot faster when you are driving more than 5 miles. You save 15 minutes driving to Eugene, and an hour when driving to Seattle.

The less time we spend on traveling or transporting goods, more time can be spent doing rather than wasting our time waiting.
—

Cox, W., & Love, J. (1996, June). 40 Years of the US Interstate Highway System: An Analysis The Best Investment A Nation Ever Made. Sponsored by American Highway Users Alliance. Retrieved February 21, 2012, from website: http://www.publicpurpose.com/freeway1.htm

Speed Limits should NOT be abolished on Interstate highways.

Claim: Abolishing the speed limit on ALL interstate highways would be irresponsible.

• Not all interstate highways are straight or flat, such as the section of I-5 between Roseburg and Canyonville.
• Not all interstate highways have been engineered to withstand high speeds.
• Speed limits let drivers know what speed it is safe to drive at.

Removing the speed limit on interstate highways where there are reasons to drive slower would remove a critical tool that is especially used by drivers who are unfamiliar with the road.
—

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. (2011, May). Q&A: Speed and speed limits. Retrieved February 21, 2012, from http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/speed_limits.html

Extra proof in case the opposition says “30% of deaths are caused by speeding”: Only a portion (12%) of those deaths are on the Interstates, which is what we’re talking about in this debate. (That’s 3.6% of all deaths rather than 30%).

National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. (2007). Traffic Safety Facts: Speeding (DOT HS 810 998). Retrieved from http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pubs/810998.pdf

Debate Argument: Anti-Legalization of Marijuana

Marijuana acts as an introduction to other, more deadly drugs.

• New marijuana users gain a euphoric ‘high’ from using marijuana, but as their bodies adjust the effects of the drug they gradually lose their effect and can sometimes lead to paranoia and anxiety rather than euphoria.
• As we learned in class, giving someone a small, non-threatening commitment is a good way to then ask for a larger commitment.
• When marijuana was decriminalized in Great Britain, the number of deaths caused by drug overdose rose 15% in a single year.

I am not proposing a conspiracy by those who sell drugs, but the simple effects of human nature. People start taking marijuana in order to feel better, and if marijuana no longer gives them that effect, they will look for something stronger, but also deadlier. The empirical proof of this concept is shown by the increase in the number of deaths that Great Britain experienced after decriminalizing marijuana.

(I also want to point out that I am not advocating for the “most hard drug users have also used marijuana, therefore it must be the cause” argument. Post hoc fallacy at work!)

Cohen, P. D., Ph.D., & Kaal, H. L., Ph.D. (2001). Irrelevance Of Drug Policy: Patterns and careers of experienced cannabis use in populations of Amsterdam, San Francisco, and Bremen. Retrieved from Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport website: http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/cohen.3cities.pdf

Slack, J. (2006, August 30). Cannabis downgrade coincides with drug deaths rise. Daily Mail.
Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-402939/Cannabis-downgrade-coincides-drug-deaths-rise.html

SPAR #5: Women vs. Men!

(Where ‘superior’ is interpreted to mean: ‘has greater contributions to society’)

Women are superior to men.

Claim: More women spend their time helping others in society.

• Women are biologically designed to care for young children.
• Women outnumber men in both formal and informal caregiving.
• Women outnumber men from 6:1 (elementary school) to 2:1 (high school) as teachers.

Society would be severely crippled without the care that women provide. We tend to take the role of woman as mother for granted, but can you imagine a world without mothers?
—

Audacious Epigone. (2009, December 17). Sex ratio of teachers [Web log post]. Retrieved from The Audacious Epigone: http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/12/sex-ratio-of-teachers.html

Family Caregiver Alliance. (2011). Selected Caregiver Statistics. Family Caregiver Alliance. Retrieved February 14, 2012, from http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=439

Men are superior to women.

Claim: Men make greater creative contributions to society.

• Male writers outnumber female writers on the bestseller list 2 to 1.
• 80% of all U.S. patents filed in the last year were by men.
• In award winning films, male actors outnumber females 3 to 1.

Regardless of the reasons, more men have found ways to contribute creatively to society where females have not.
—

Baum, G. (2008, February 21). Gender Balance Askew in Oscar Race. Retrieved February 14, 2012, from University of Southern Califormia website: http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/14886.html

Bellis, M. (n.d.). How Many Women Inventors Are There? Retrieved February 14, 2012, from About.com website: http://inventors.about.com/od/womeninventors/a/How-Many-Women-Inventors-Are-There.htm

Williamson, E. (2012, January 25). Gender bias at NPR — and what it reveals about the world of
literary fiction. The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved from http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/133082-gender-bias-at-npr-and-what-it-reveals-about-the/#ixzz1mRFIvzgx

Debate Argument: Pro-Legalization of Marijuana

Marijuana is less dangerous than other legal substances.

A simple way to measure the toxicity of a drug is to compare the ratio between gaining the desired effect (getting high or a buzz) and a lethal dose. Heroin is lethal at five times the effective dose, alcohol is ten times, cocaine is fifteen times. Where does marijuana fall? You would need to consume more than one thousand times the dose needed to get high to lethally overdose. This number is theoretical however, as there has never been a known case of death by marijuana. In comparison, about 24,000 people die every year due to over-drinking.

The classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug is arbitrary and non-scientific. The U.S. Federal government has a duty to create laws that are just. Classifying a lethal drug as legal to sell and consume while also classifying even possession of a non-lethal drug as a criminal offense is neither just nor reasonable.

Gable, R. (2006, May/June). The Toxicity of Recreational Drugs. American Scientist, 94(3). Retrieved from http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/the-toxicity-of-recreational-drugs/1

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011, December 7). Alcohol Use in the U.S.. Retrieved February 8, 2012, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alcohol.htm

SPAR #4: Batman vs. Superman

Batman is superior to Superman.

Batman has greater intelligence and mental strength than Superman.

Batman is known to have genius level IQ, photographic memory, to be a computer hacker and spends his time solving mysteries. Batman beat Superman in a fight using his brain rather than brute strength. Superman, on the other hand, solves his problems with a swift punch to the face.
Solving problems without “super powers”, but instead with mental prowess is superior to solving problems by punching them out of the galaxy. Problems have a canny way of outwitting brute strength.

Superman is superior to Batman.

Superman is physically superior to Batman.

Let’s face it, Superman can run really, really fast, has x-ray vision, heat rays that come out of his eyes, is strong enough to lift anything on this world, and he can flipping fly. Batman is a human. Batman may have a batmobile, but he can’t even drive as fast as Superman can jog.
Superman has the physical ability to accomplish anything he wants, where Batman is limited by human limits and technology, therefore Superman is superior to Batman.

Rank’s Model of Analysis

H&R Block is currently running an ad campaign for their Second Look program. The theme of the campaign is “Never Settle For Less,” a reference to receiving more from your tax return even if you already filed your taxes with another agency or did them yourself. Each ad follows the same formula, starting with showing an applicant who talks about why they decided to try Second Look, then they talk about what they would do with their extra money and finally the ad shows what looks like a cross between a rewards ceremony and a game show where the applicant stands up in front of the crowd and opens an envelope showing how much money they received (usually in the $1000-$2000 range). There are a lot of different forms of persuasion at use in these ads, but let’s see how Rank’s model applies.

Of the six applicants that are highlighted, each received an average of $2,684, with the largest amount being $8,635. Who wouldn’t want that much free money? The idea that you can go to H&R Block and have them look at your taxes and get back a couple thousand dollars is a pretty powerful incentive to try their program. But, they are intensifying their strongest point! If you look at the small, gray type at the bottom of the screen, you’ll notice that it says, “94 of the 223 returns we reviewed in Detroit, MI Second Look event showed tax overpayment, and the average amount of overpayment was $1057.” With some math trickery, they hid the fact that out of all the returns that they reviewed for this event (notice, there is no word on if the applicants were screened for likelihood of overpayment), the actual average is $446 rather than $2,684, and 129 of the applicants received no additional money. So, in reality, you have less than a 50% chance of getting anything back at all, let alone thousands of dollars.

Another portion of the small, gray text displayed at the bottom of the screen states, “Fees apply for Second Look® reviews and if you have us prepare a corrected or amended return.” I looked on H&R Block’s website, and the initial fee is $29, which you will still owe, even if they do not find any overpayment. And, if they do find an overpayment, they’ll charge you again to actually re-file your taxes. The average cost of filing your taxes with H&R Block was $189 in 2010, according to the H&R Block’s annual shareholder report. To counter this ‘bad point’, the advertisement has one of the applicants (Albert) mentions that Second Look was offered to him for free, which it was ... for a limited time, and for only 223 people in Detroit. The rest of us would have to pay.

In one ad, a quilt shop owner mentions that “I don’t like doing taxes, I did them online, there’s a lot that I guessed at, and I have a feeling I guessed wrong.” If you believed these advertisements, why would you ever do your own taxes? Taxes can be confusing and complex, and these advertisements definitely play on this fear of “doing your taxes wrong.” The entire goal behind the Second Look program is to show that you can get back more from H&R Block than you could by doing them yourself, using a free online service or having a “friend of a friend” do them for you. The ads make it a point to specifically name these competitors, and then show the happy H&R Block customer walking away with lots of money (as if H&R Block was the one giving away the money!).

The last leg of Rank’s model is to downplay the opposition’s good points. First off, no mention is made of the 129 people whose taxes had been done as well or even ‘better’ than H&R Block could. I feel like I covered this pretty well earlier, so let’s move on. Although the ads do mention the cheaper price of doing your own taxes, they do so with a negative light, emphasizing the idea that “you get what you pay for.” In reality, the IRS has multiple workshops, free resources, and tax advisers that are all available for those who are filing their own taxes.

These ads persuade the viewer by downplaying the plus side to doing your own taxes, by emphasizing how confusing taxes are, by emphasizing the potential monetary reward for having H&R Block look at your taxes, and by downplaying the potential costs associated with the review.

H&R Block. (n.d.). Second Look® Review. H&R Block Tax Services. Retrieved February 2, 2012 from http://www.hrblock.com/offices/tax-services-second-look-review.html

H&R Block. (2011). 2011 Annual Report. Retrieved from http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/76/76888/AnnualReportFinalHRB2011.pdf

H&R Block. (2011, January 5). Never Settle for Less: Theresa- Quilt Store Owner [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo8HTnNcx-U

H&R Block. (2011, December 22). Never Settle For Less - Albert [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVT3fNniS2E

H&R Block. (2012, January 13). Never Settle For Less- The Detroit Story [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDputtH_9qA

SPAR #3: Pirates vs. Ninjas

Ninjas are better than pirates.

Throughout the history of classical piracy, it has always been the domain of males. The few female pirates that we know existed spent their careers disguised as men. By contrast, Kunoichi, the female ninja, was a recognized and equally lethal counterpart to the male ninja.
The inclusion of the female half of the population, both in historic participation and in modern storytelling makes ninjas better.

Okinawa. (2011, July 27). Kunoichi: Japan's Female Ninjas. [Online Guidebook]. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from Japan Guidebook website: http://www.japanguidebook.com/articles/kunoichi-88.html

Vallar, C. (2004, March). Women and the Jolly Roger. [Website]. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from Pirates and Privateers website: http://www.cindyvallar.com/womenpirates.html

Pirates are better than ninjas.

Pirates have a varied and colorful costume. Bright colors, shirtless guys, tattoos, jewelry, stripes! Those are just a few of the pirate’s visual assets, and doesn’t even go into the broader setting: sailing ships, tropical islands, parrots, cannon fights, and so on.

On the other hand, ninjas (at least fictionally) are dressed in black, and that’s it. Historical ninjas dressed like regular Japanese citizens, probably nothing too exciting so as not to draw attention to themselves.

When comparing the appearance of ninjas to that of pirates, the pirate stands out as sexier, more interesting and visually unique.

Speaker Credibility

There are three main factors that determine the credibility of a speaker are trust, expertise, and dynamism. President Obama is a good example for all three factors of credibility. He uses eloquence, eye contact, and speaks with certainty (dynamism). He ignites trust by using his past track record, a personal connection with his audience and stated positive views on god-topics (ha ha) to imply that he cares about the American people’s welfare. President Obama amplifies his own expertise (as a senator and lawyer) with deference to experts (example is the oil spill emergency). An George W. Bush is an interesting example of trust. At first, he used his track record of his upbringing, family ties, religion and southern drawl to gain the trust of the electorate, but after being in office for a while, people began to notice his inability to speak correctly (known colloquially as Bushisms), giving the impression that he was actually not very bright and had gotten his position through knowing the right people. Obama’s stellar speaking skills seem all the brighter as a follow-up to the late president Bush’s more redneck style.

An example of an ad that uses trust are the Windows 7 ads that use “regular family people” to sell the message that you can also be successful if you use the new version of Windows. The ad I cite has a voice-over of a woman as she “creates the perfect family portrait,” demonstrating how easy it is for an average person to perform. As stated in the section on proof by testimony, the audience will react favorably to a message that is delivered by someone who is like them – i.e. they will trust the mom in this ad more than Steve Ballmer or some executive who obviously wants you to buy the product because they will earn more money that way.

An example of an ad that uses expertise is almost any toothpaste ad. The ad I cite (Sensodyne) proclaims that their toothpaste is the recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists. The ad also shows cool diagrams of teeth, and testimony by a dentist, demonstrating that they know more about the structure of teeth than the viewer is likely to, placing them well into the expert category.

An example of an ad that uses dynamism to build credibility is a Geico Ad using their lizard mascot. The Geico gecko has an Aussie accent, and is cute and green. As a plus, the animation of the Geico lizard gives a greater range of facial expressions than would even be feasible for a human actor. The ad I cite as an example actually focuses on this fact, with one of the actors stating, “With all due respect, if I were tiny and green and had a British accent, I’d have more folks paying attention to me too...”

Obama looking for 'whose ass to kick' [Television news broadcast]. (2010, June 8). CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/07/gulf.oil.obama/index.html

Kurtzman, D. (n.d.). The 50 Dumbest Bush Quotes of All Time [compilation]. About.com. Retrieved from http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/bushquotes/a/dumbbushquotes.htm

Microsoft. (2011, November 9). Create the perfect family photo [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/NJeW1teYx5U

figjunk (poster). (2011, April 3). Sensodyne Dentist Testimonial Ad [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/d3jHtTmAEgU

602communications (poster). (2010, August 10). Geico: Accent [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/W74DroB-dwM

SPAR #2: SOPA

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) are beneficial to American Society.

According to Hillel Parness, a practicing attorney in New York and a member of the Intellectual Property faculty at Columbia University School of Law, the statutes on which SOPA and PIPA expand are already in effect inside of the United States. The only major change these acts make is to expand those laws to cover domains that reside outside of the country as well as within our borders. “If there was a risk of abuse, that risk has always been there.”

If you accept that copyright law is beneficial to American society, protecting the creations of our citizens, then it follows that SOPA/PIPA, an international extension of these laws, would benefit our society as well.

Fullton, S. M., III. (2011, November 23). Legal Analysis of SOPA / PROTECT-IP: No, It's Not Censorship [Web log post]. Retrieved from Read Write Enterprise: http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2011/11/legal-analysis-of-sopa-protect.php

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) are not beneficial to American Society.

SOPA and PIPA would mildly benefit (see evidence on next page) the multi-billion dollar industries in question. This would come at the cost of smaller Internet-based companies being harried for allowing their users to post a link to an offending site, to offer search results that point to an offending site or to upload anything that anyone with a lawyer deems worthy of suing over. The only protection that comes between a site accused of infringing a copyright and being wiped off the face of the Internet is a five day grace period where they can write a letter to the court which issued the order explaining how the judge misidentified the site as supporting piracy. This type of law flies in the face of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ a pillar of US law. The accused is denied a trial, and is convicted of a crime without being made aware of the proceedings until the sentence has already been passed.

Stop Online Piracy, H.R. 3261, Sec. 102, 112th Cong. (2011), http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.03261:.

Debate Club!

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” -Joseph Joubert

This quotation was the first thing that greeted me after walking into debate club this afternoon. To me, this really defines the purpose of debate, that of understanding the full spectrum of a topic before declaring the matter settled. Throughout the meeting, we were presented with a variety of topics, some of them were “hot topics” that people tend to take a strong emotional stance about (communism vs democracy). I noticed that the arguments for something that the speaker was strongly against became much more vague, and less defined. This would indicate that the speaker has a strong bias, but has not spent the time to think about or research the opposing view.

Outside the classroom, there was a small debate about the purpose of debate club. One student voiced their opinion that they only wanted to participate in debates about topics that interested them. The regular members of the debate club were speechless for a moment, and someone gracefully acquiesced the question by allowing that this was opinion. It is my opinion that the purpose of debate club is to refine our skills in debate (as well as enjoying the thrill of the mental challenge it provides), and this is done by arguing for things that we strongly disagree with.

Discussion Question #2

The thematic dimension of language describes the way in which words feel when they are spoken or read. We remember things better when they are in a poetic form (not just rhyme, but meter and texture as well) and advertisers use this to their advantage when composing an ad’s copy. Which would you remember better: ‘Eat Kit-Kat Bars because your friends will want to have a bite as well.’ OR ‘Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit-Kat Bar!’ If you’ve watched TV at all in the last twenty plus years, you might have caught yourself singing along to that last example. Music, repetition, and simplicity all work together to help you remember the product being advertised.

Another aspect of the thematic dimension of language is using words that sound similar to another word that you want the listener to associate with your message. I think one the common ways to use this form of the thematic dimension of language is in the use of product names. Dr. Pepper and Pepsi both share the word pep as part of their name, reminding the listener that drinking their soda will pep you right up and make you feel better. Did you know that Pepsi’s original name was ‘Brad’s Drink’? I don’t think it would be as popular today if they hadn’t changed it!

SPAR #1: Using Notes

The use of a note card on quizzes would adversely affect learning in our class.

If you accept the premise that the goal of this class is to gain knowledge and skills that we, as students, will be able to utilize for the rest of our lives, it becomes important to look at the long term effect note-taking has on memory recall. Humans have developed a technique for memory management called ‘transactive memory.’ If we realize that a friend of ours knows something, we are less likely to remember it ourselves. This also applies to the ability to look something up online or where we have it written down. In an experiment created by Columbia University, participants were given random trivia to memorize. All of the participants typed the trivia into a computer, but half of them were told that their work would be erased. Recall of the typed material was 40% better in the group who believed that they could not rely on their typed notes to remember the information. Humans are very good at utilizing the knowledge repositories that they have created, whether it is a friend, a search engine, an encyclopedia or notes carefully crammed onto a 5x7 card. But, when it comes down to it, in the real world no one is going to wait while we flip through our notebook looking for the information that we can’t quite remember.

Keim, Brandon. “Search Engines Change How Memory Works.” Wired 14 Jul. 2011. Wired Science. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/search-engine-memory/

The use of a note card on quizzes would positively affect learning in our class.

Learning is a complex process, and we cannot just press a button to memorize all of our course material. Each of us learn in a slightly different way. For some students, repetition is needed, for others hands on is the only way to go. If note-taking helps a good number of students to remember and retain the lessons in this course, then denying them that opportunity would be detrimental to their learning experience. To test this question, a group of students were presented with a lecture on psychology. Half of these students were allowed to take notes, and the other half were not. After quizzing the students, it was discovered that each group remembered about 40% of the information that was covered. However, when the quality (rather than quantity) of the answers were examined, it was discovered that the students who had taken notes recalled pertinent points, where the non note-taking half recalled information seemingly at random. By taking notes, the students were able to point their brains at the correct information to remember. In this class we are given Power Point slides containing the lectures. Without the incentive to write notes for the quiz, many students will skip taking their own notes for studying, thereby reducing their chances of actually learning the material in this class.

Wax, Dustin. “Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write.” Lifehack 28 Sep. 2011. Lifehack. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/writing-and-remembering-why-we-remember-what-we-write.html

Discussion: Question #1

What current example of public persuasion might illustrate the tension between freedom of communication and ethical responsibility? How?

The international organization, WikiLeaks, publishes “submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers” to the public through their website (Wikipedia). WikiLeaks is attempting to persuade the public that they really ought to pay more attention to the goals (and the methods used to achieve those goals) that their governments and other institutions actually support. WikiLeaks was partially responsible for the recent uprisings in Tunisia through the publication of US Diplomatic cables (The Daily Mail). Freedom of speech demands that WikiLeaks be allowed to share what they are given, but there are times when the information given out can be dangerous (such as a list of our undercover spies). Although the media has moved on to other stories, WikiLeaks continues to publish the information that they receive, choosing the dissemination of information over keeping potentially explosive revelations under wraps.

I was personally interested in the response that commentators in the media gave to these publications as well as their editor-in-chief, Julian Assange. Many called for Assange to be executed or assassinated, while some suggested that he be given the Nobel Peace Prize (Siddique). Even under the guise of patriotism, it was clear that those with the most to lose were also the most vocal about their ethical condemnation of the tactics used by the WikiLeaks staff.

The Daily Mail. “'First Wikileaks Revolution': Tunisia descends into anarchy as president flees after cables reveal country's corruption.” The Daily Mail 12 Jan. 2011. Mail Online. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1347336/First-Wikileaks-Revolution-Tunisia-descends-anarchy-president-flees.html

Siddique, Haroon, and Mathew Weaver. “US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee.” The Guardian 1 Dec. 2010. The Guardian. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/us-embassy-cables-executed-mike-huckabee

Wikipedia. “WikiLeaks.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 11 Jan. 2011. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks