What Does the World Want from America AOW #15

This week I read a section from my IRB “What Does the World Want from America?” by Alexander T.J. Lennon.  The book, actually, was only edited by Lennon, the main parts of the book were written by many people from varying countries giving their outlook on America.  In the section, writers from China, Japan, India, and Singapore gave their countries views on America.  China’s representative, Wu Xinbo, writes about how the United States changes their views on China frequently, from “Rosy to Grimy Glasses.”  He also says that Americans look at the growth of China to see how it would benefit or hurt them, but never stop to think what is best for the Chinese people.  Similarly, Akio Watanabe, from Japan shares that it is all a matter of perspective when it comes to views on America.  If one is from a smaller country that is not heard very much at the international level, and when they are not given any attention from the United States to try to help them with their issues they do not give them America a positive outlook.  This book was written in a time when Americans view themselves as the great mediators and have a responsibility to help other countries as the sole superpower of the world.  But this is not what people from other countries believe.  This book was written to give Americans the views on themselves from other countries.  Some of the rhetorical elements used in this piece were allusion, and an appeal to ethos.  An appeal to ethos is made just by the entire setup of the book.  After reading the footnotes, it is noticeable that all of the writers are well educated and know what they are talking about.  The fact that this book has many of these writers shows that it is a credible source.  Allusion was used by Akio Watanabe.  He compares the difference in perspectives to “Gulliver’s Travels,” a series of books written by Jonathan Swift that depict a man who travels and gives his own views on the people and from the way the people act, the peoples views on him are inferred.  So far, the authors are able to accomplish their purpose through these rhetorical elements.

Toys For Creating Worlds AOW #14

http://www.ted.com/talks/will_wright_makes_toys_that_make_worlds.html

This week I watched a speech on TED.  The speech was introducing a new game that was designed to teach the players as they played the game.  The only difference is that the game allows the players to discover these things themselves.  This allows for a more lasting impact on the player.  The speaker was Will Wright.  He is a game designer who has profited greatly from his extremely popular games like SimCity, The Sims, and Spore.  He knows how to design great games and he has the intention of teaching the players along the way.  This game that Wright has designed is in a world where video games are more accessible and more popular than ever.  His attempt to teach with video games will apply to many people.  His purpose for this speech was to prove to his audience, people who doubt the usefulness of video games and think they are a waste of time, that video games can change the world if they are designed the right way.  Rhetorical devices that I found in his speech were pathos, logos, and ethos.  He applied to logos through the examples that he was able to bring from the game itself.  He established credibility through showing a game that he designed and diction as well.  Lastly he reached the audiences emotions through showing how passionate he was for his work.  His passion made the audience interested in what they were hearing.  I believe that he did accomplish his purpose because he amazed me and all others in his audience with how useful, but also fun, he was able to make a video game.

Video Games Tied to Creativity AOW #13

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111102125355.htm

This week I found an article about a study done with 491 middle school students that proves that playing video games makes one more creative.  How they studied this was they asked the students how often they played video games, and then put them in a category.  After that, they gave them a Torrance test, which gave the student a curved line on a piece of paper and they were told to draw a picture on it, give it a title, and write a story on it.  The results of this test proved that playing video games (violent or non-violent) gives an individual more creativity.  This article was written by science daily authors for the purpose of informing those who had questions about this correlation. Many people believed that there was a correlation, but they could never be sure, until finding out through this article.  I believe that this article did accomplish its purpose through the use of ethos and logos.  Their logos was done with quoting many other scientists who are more informed on the subject, and talking about the study.  This then helped build the ethos through showing that they know what they are talking about and also using diction that makes them sound more knowledgeable.