Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Final- Exploration 9


Part 1
One of my favorite pieces to write this semester was essay three. This was the one where you had multiple choices for a direction to choose from, and I chose to do an argument on the death penalty. When I had started out my thought process on this paper, I had planned on taking the side of for it. I was so confident that I was going to be correct, and that I would find irrefutable evidence for my case. However, after much internal deliberation, I found myself having a better argument for being opposed to it! 

As I wrote my essay on this, I found myself so interested in this topic, it became a center focus for me, and how I would view the world. I had five major arguments in my paper, and they are as follows.
1. Not a deterrent- If the idea of prison is for the persons in jail to learn from their mistakes, then we can agree there is not much a dead person can learn from his or her mistakes if we as a society have already condemned them. 
2. Not a solution- Physical abuse would be violating the Second Amendment, which is guaranteed to every American.
3. Violates 2nd amendment (cruel/unusual punishment)- “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Notice that ‘life’ is the very first right listed to every person. It is also unalienable, which means it is ‘unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor’ (Merriam-Webster). Looking above, again we see that the architects of perhaps the greatest secular document ever written imply the existence of a God.
4. IF believe in a God- how can you argue we have the right to take life- when it is not ours to take?
5. Economical strain 

Anyways, I believe if anyone follows these 5 points, they would have to at least consider the legitimacy of the opposed side of the death penalty.

Part 2

Something that I think you everyone should look at is the Benjamin Watson Facebook post, about the Ferguson Case. No matter you position on this, on theology, or anything else- it is still worth looking at. This is probably the best piece of writing I’ve seen all year, and it comes from inspiration from a NFL player. The use of writing here is really something special. Check it out if you get the chance.

Here is the link.

6 comments:

  1. I enjoyed writing essay three a lot also. I thought it was a nice change of pace to be able to have a little more freedom than usual and pick the direction we wanted to take the piece. I also think you picked a very good subject because of how controversial it can be. Nice Job!

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  2. I really like the topic you chose to write about for Essay Three. What you shared in this post made me really interested to read the rest of what you wrote with the five points. I like how you added those five points to back you up on your argument. Nice job!

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  3. As it turns out, I found myself in a little trouble with essay 3 because I didn't really know where to go with it. I liked the idea of free choice, I just had a really tough time settling on something. I think you made a very strong argument, I can see your ethos through research, your pathos through syntax and diction and your logos throughout the piece as a whole. Well done. I also enjoyed the Benjamin Watson piece, you were very right, the writing is excellent.

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  4. First off, Thank you for making your writing bold so I can actually read your writing without strain. Your essay three sounds a lot more interesting than mine and I would like to read more into it! I think that you picked a strong argument and kept to your side very well

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  5. that post on Facebook is well written and i think it shows that people can pick sides quickly and not really sort out all their emotions before deciding how to feel about a subject. I am really glad you brought that to our attention.

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  6. I think that your paper is well organized and shows that you are able to write in a well organized manner. I also think that that Facebook post shows what an in-depth view of what someone feels about the events happening in ferguson.

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