Opinion Editorials

After reading the assigned pages in the Curious Writer and then looking for those things in my first Op-Ed article, I was extremely impressed with the writing of The Seat Not Taken on nytimes.com.  This author observed, tested, and then claimed that we are not rid of our judgement on skin color.  John Wideman, the author, is a colored man who rides the train from New York City to Providence, RI twice a week and he has noticed that no one tends to take the seat next to him.   I went through all the logical fallacies listed in the book and I couldn't find a fault in his argument.  He obviously is aware that his prediction can't be scientifically proven, but he uses logos to explain that his seat is just as good as the others.  He doesn't have an odor, he doesn't have a threatening look, or anything else that is different from the other people on the train with open seats.  He states that the only difference between his open seat and the other open seats is that he is colored and they are not.  His last sentence is a grand example of ethos.  He indicates that he felt the need to speak out about his findings and he closes with  "Posters in the train, the station, the subway warn: if you see something, say something." 

For my second Op-Ed I found one quite a bit different to the one above.  WPA: Waste of a Precious Afternoon persuaded me with the use of ethos.  Joseph Pavlish started his article talking about things he'd personally like to be doing on a weekend.  He brought up great things, things I'd like to do too.  But, he followed it up with the discouraging reality that he had to take the Writing Proficiency Assessment.  Because I don't know much about the WPA (in fact, I've never heard of it) I went into the article indifferent to his opinion.  His argument did a good job of swaying me into thinking that the WPA is unnecessary and doesn't do a good job of pushing students to do their best or of testing their writing efficiency.  I liked how Pavlish made a claim, he gave his reasons for his claim, and then he gave evidence.  I enjoyed reading this article.

I looked hard for logical fallacies in Facebook, I just can't quit you but I failed to find any.  I don't know if I'm failing to see them in the articles I read or if I am reading good fallacy-free articles.  This particular article is pretty well explained in the title.  The author, Meghan Daum, writes about something almost everybody can relate to: Facebook.  I think her writing is a good example of "suspending judgement."  As her article progresses she discovers more and more why she can't seem to delete her Facebook.  Everybody knows about Facebook.  It is not a new and exciting subject.  Therefore, to draw in the audience's attention and make her article seem worth reading she used ethos.  Meghan came along side every other Facebook owner and brought up things she had in common with us.  Then, she continued to show how Facebook has become more than just something fun, it has become almost a requirement for society. 

nytimes.com
montanakaimin.com
latimes.com