4/6/09 Op-Ed Prewriting

1.The general tone of op-eds posted in the Orlando Sentinel is purposeful, witty, and often is blaming. It is clear that the authors feel strongly about the topics being discussed and the editorials call upon a specific party to be responsible for the issue at hand. The assumed audience seems to be educated individuals living in greater Orlando who are of voting age. It is interesting that there is a liberal feel with each piece since the audience is not predominately liberal or conservative. A lot of the articles are currently dealing with new budget cuts, education, and topics related to jobs and the economy.

2.The op-ed I will write will focus on persuading readers that education should be at the top of priorities for legislators based on evidence suggesting negative results that sprout from poor education such as a weakened economy and work force. I will discuss some suggested options that can be initiated to make sure that education is not sacrificed amongst budget cuts. This topic runs parallel to the theme of most of the op-eds currently in the Orlando Sentinel.

3.My purpose in writing on this subject is to persuade readers to write to or call the governor of Florida’s office and other legislators about their concern for the lack of focus on sustaining and improving public education in Florida.

4./5. /6. The most effective rhetorical appeals will probably be ethos and pathos, but also logos. I will give personal experience or anecdotes to bring pathos to the piece. This will be effective if the audience is as I assume: educated. It will be most effective in persuading parents of school aged, or soon to be school aged children. I will establish ethos by discussing the topic with an educated view, not simply opinions. For example, I will provide results from research on the effects of poor education on a county or state (which I will have to do some researching to find). This will also provide logos, as will bringing up other arguments in the correct logical order.

4/1/09 Letter to Editor draft 1

Author's Note:

This is the first draft of a letter to the editor regarding an opinion article bashing the Florida legislaters rather thant the school district leaders for the potential drastic measures that may occur in certain Florida school districts due to recent budget cuts in education. I think I need help making sure my statements are clearly understandable, as I often find that my wording can be a little akward and difficult to get through. I am also concerned that my points are not effective enough.

Draft 1:

In regards to the article published on 3/20/09, “We think: Legislators sleep as the education funding crisis deepens,” and having been raised and educated for the most part in Central Florida, It seems that Florida’s legislators and Florida voters need to take another look at their priority list and reevaluate what is important to sustaining and promoting a good life.

As a college student who can now fathom the importance of learning continuously in order to lead an enriching and purposeful life, I have learned numerous times that less focus on education leads to increased unwanted births, increased drug and alcohol use, and a dampened economy. And if you don’t believe me, do your research. My experience with the situation comes from attending public high school in Florida. Over and over again, the story seems to be that the importance stressed on education, and the amount of resources available, are negatively correlated with violence, low test scores, and failing rates.

I came from a school that was nationally ranked, but some surrounding public schools were known for their low test scores, violence, and failing rates. It was for this reason my parents decided to send my sister and I to a private middle school and to move to a better school district in the town over. Not all families, though, have the opportunity to or care to make such changes to send their children to a better educational setting. And why should they if Florida legislators did their job to ensure that public education is a top priority no matter the economic state?

Many have traveled and experienced an 8 percent sales tax in other states, two cents higher than the six percent sales tax in Orange County. While this is not ideal, the ultimate question is if people will people stop buying if one to two percent more is taken in the name of sales tax for the benefit of the school system? And if so, why not, instead, raise the sales tax on cigarettes to that of other states since more and more studies are suggesting that smoking cigarettes is one of the leading causes of cancer? What does the governor think is being accomplished for the state by decreasing property taxes and failing to raise cigarette taxes? Is appeasing Florida smokers by not increasing taxes to the extent of every other state more important than ensuring that our youth have the best educational resources available?

As the article points out, Charlie Christ is opposed to increasing taxes. Maybe it’s on this principle that he was placed on several billboards throughout the state when Florida voters were called to “vote yes to Amendment 1”. While the article does not mention this, I can see a parallel theme. Amendment 1, as all Florida residents probably know, decreased property taxes. In turn, however, the school system saw dramatic budget cuts. Teachers were fired, busses cut from bus schedules, and four-year universities across the state eliminated degree programs and limited available summer courses.

In my opinion, not only are the governor and legislators to blame for their skewed sense of what is important, Florida voters need to be called upon to pay more attention to the consequences of their voting decisions.

3/30/09

The article I have chosen is related to my local community in the area I was raised. It discusses the budget cuts for education that are expected to take place in Orange County, Florida, and the actions that are being taken to ensure education does not suffer. Basically, the article blames the Governor of Florida for not doing enough to ensure education has an adequate budget. Growing up in Florida, I was lucky enough to go to schools that were ranked nationally as great schools, but I know that most schools in Florida are struggling to pass students.

Since the recent Governor was elected, education budgets have been cut dramatically. One instance in particular I remember education budgets being cut is when the 1st Amendment was passed in Florida, with the govoners backing evident on billboards throughout the state. The ammendment boasted cutting property taxes, while decreasing the public school system's budget. In my oppinion, education should be the top priority. Where education is lacking, poverty, crime, drug use, and increased number of unwanted births seem to occur. In a state known for its poor education and test scores, the Governer should be doing everything possible to ensure that education does not suffer as a result of the recession.

3/25/09

The topic I am exploring is related to the decrease in education budgets in the Orlando area and the impacts it may have on the schools. If maximum budgets are taken, Orange county, the largest Orlando county, would have to close about 6 schools. This would mean moving students around and coming up with ways to get bus systems and physical buildings to support an increase number of students. In my opinion, education should be one of the last things cut from budgets since there are many implications that things such as poverty, and a low health status increase with the decrease in education (or maybe more accurately, as education is more successful, poverty and health get better). Closing 6 schools would greatly impact the Orlando area, and would pose many problems for the community, especially in the future. This is the county's way of trying to keep the per student budget the same while cutting back on the gross budget. More thought needs to be put in in order to come up with the best solutions to making Orlando schools better amongst budget cuts.

3/23/09 - Author's note, Draft 2

This draft is still not what I would consider a finalized draft. I expanded a bit from my first draft on one of the resources being anaylyzed but didn't do much expanding on the other resources. Also, I still need to finalize my works cited page. There are two types of citing throughout the paper (sec and par) because one of the resources was broken up into sections and not paragraphs (so this is correct).

I would like the peer revising to provide me with ways I can make the paper a little more clear and give me examples of points that could be expanded on.

3/09/09

This is a first draft for 3/9/09. I will attempt to add to and finalize a new draft within the next week.

I think the peice needs a bit more assessment of authors' stylistic elements and overall analysis of the arguments made. Also, I feel the paper is a bit jumpy and could use better organization.

Please let me know if there is any advise that could be useful to help me better organize the paper and argument analysis.

3/4/09

The authors of each of my sources seem to have a passion for impacting the current issues related to childhood obesity and use this passion in their first hand accounts dealing with the subject in order to promote a positive change to the issue. The authors often use statistics throughout their rhetoric to emphasize the point trying to be made, and develop ethos by presenting themselves as knowledgeable people with first hand experience dealing with researching the subject.

The authors also use strong words to describe the [so called] epidemic of childhood obesity in the US and the prevalence of potential complications. Each of them touch on the concern for furture problems, such as 1/3 of the generation living a shorter, less healthy, and more disease ridden life than previous generations.