Resources

So this will be a little late but the website looks different on a pc compared to an ipad.

1. Think Again: War  by Goldstein, Joshua S.   from: Foreign Policy Sep/Oct 2011, issue 188, p- 1-9

2. In War's Wake: International Conflict and the Fate of Liberal Democracy  contributed by Elizabeth Kier and Ronald R. Krebs. part of BYU library.

3. Soldiers and Society: The Effects of Military Service and War on American Life  by Peter Karsten. part of BYU library

4. Cost of the Iraq War  by Peter Katel

5. Legacy of the Vietnam War  by David Masci

So all these literary works are related to war and the effects they have whether psychological or on society in general. Either way it is a descent start for writing the next assignment.

Possible Issues that are Important

One of the top ideas for an issue to discuss deals with war. Particularly in respect to the effect war has had on the development of society in the past, how it effects us today, and how it may effect the future. A question to ask to help with this issue may be, how has our current society been effected by the wars of the last 50 years? With this train of thought I would want to focus a lot on  how the people have been effected from war and how those people inherently effect the war itself.

Another issue that I might like to discuss is how tactics in war have changed. This may just be a spin off of the previous topic but this focus would look more on the evolution of military tactics. Starting from as far back as Egyptian tactics all the way to today's war tactics. Part of this would include reason why men continue to become soldiers and how it has changed from a class standing to a professional occupation. Obviously both are pretty linear in regards to war but it is something I feel strongly about and can discuss in depth.

Review of Analysis

I have to admit that when I first started out to write a review analysis, I had no idea what I was doing. The whole purpose of making an analysis of someone else's work didn't make too much sense to me, especially the method for doing it. After this paper, though, I feel like I do have a better grasp on the overall take on what a review analysis is. Particularly in the aspect of looking for and judging how effectively rhetoric is used in writing. Before rhetoric never really occurred to me but now I see how good effective rhetoric is and how hurtful bad rhetoric is to a paper.

Analysis of Major Pain's Blog

Using proper rhetoric has an important effect when we write literary material. As blogging has become a widespread means to communicate one’s opinions and ideas, it is important to use good rhetoric in order to properly display what it is the writer wants to say. The following post is titled, "You failed-- but then what did you do," written by someone who calls himself Major Pain. His writing is meant to inspire people to take advantage of the mistakes they make and use those mistakes as opportunities of learning and become better people. While the tone in which Major Pain writes is enthusiastic and emotionally compelling, it also reflects a sense of hard nose, lack of compassion which is meant for military soldiers (from the blog site it is apparent that Major Pain is a career soldier himself) but the advice he gives is applicable to all. There are, however, many mistakes in grammar and punctuation that leave the blog wanting in sophistication that would usually entail professional advice. Despite this the article is compelling for anyone to read, while also including relevant metaphors to help us understand and even a quote from Abraham Lincoln.

From the post, it is feasible to determine that Maj. Pain (for lack of a name his blog ID will suffice) feels quite passionate about the topic of overcoming mistakes and turning them into advantages. The emphatic tone in which he leaves his post is one that would inspire many readers to heed his advice and push through the lows of life. In his own words he uses the analogy of, “when you get bucked off [a horse], you got to get back on.” This analogy, in itself, is a very effective tool that Maj. Pain uses because the analogy is referred to on a wide spread bases and is easy to associate with. While not everyone will have experienced the exact sensation of being thrown off a horse and then getting back up to ride the animal again, the commonality of the expression and the simplicity of visualizing such an event make it an effective tool to explain his point. The point is to not let mistakes or bad things weigh you down, but rather let them be opportunities to grow and learn.

Along with the analogy of falling down, he uses metaphors associated with different occupations. Each creates an understandable association with his argument that the audience will understand. One of those deals with sports, wherein a player makes a mistake [the example used is “punting the ball into the stands”, referring to football] but he forgets about that one time and works to rectify the mistake. At the same time Major Pain alludes to an idea that those who make mistakes and then overcome them are professionals, whether it is in sports or in the office. What I like in this classification is that he is shadowing toward the idea that while everyone makes mistakes, including professionals of one occupation or another, a true “professional” is one who has learned to recognize and overcome individual flaws. This type of word play invokes a desire to not just simply accomplish jobs, but become so good at a job to be classified as a professional.

Major Pain brings greater emphasis to his writing by adding to his post a powerful quote from Abraham Lincoln. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”—Abraham Lincoln. Having this quote inserted in the text brings a lot of validity to Major Pain’s rhetoric. It gives stability to have a quote from a credible, historical figure, like Abraham Lincoln, confirm the same idea about not giving up. As Major Pain mentions, one of the major reasons that he keeps pushing for the audience to overcome mistakes is that many of us are leaders in the world. Whether they are leaders of industry or of soldiers (like he seems to be) he makes it apparent that a good leader is to be able to effectively push through personal mistakes and learn from them so that he can more appropriately lead. Who could be a better example of this idea then Abraham Lincoln?

So while I applaud Major Pain’s use of different tools as effective and relative, I do believe that mistakes, in the form of grammar and sentence structure, take away from some of the strength of the blog post. For one thing, incoherent sentences can break up the mood of what is being written and distract a reader from the message the writer is trying to relay. Though a minor thing, repetitive mistakes eventually lead to a disinterest in the writing as it becomes more cumbersome to understand what the writer is trying to portray. The post itself is captivating throughout, but a bit more refining of the writing would bring an extra level of sophistication to the argument while not distracting the reader with simple grammatical discrepancies. That being said, Major Pain does put his own personality into the post which offers the audience a glimpse at the man writing, so as to make a more personal connection and trust that the one writing is in fact genuine with his argument. And though that imagine is rough and outspoken, isn’t great get a little advice from someone who is not afraid to be blunt.

So to summarize, I do believe this post is effective in influencing its readers to overcome mistakes and use those opportunities to improve. I feel that a number of excellent tools were used and that they effectively portray what the writer is intending to proclaim. And while the mistakes in grammar and sentence structure do create a hindrance to portions of the text, the overall tone is maintained throughout the post. After reading this post, readers will be inspired to work past their own failures and become better people by learning from those mistakes.

First Peer Review compared to Second Time

Well, even though I didn't like how much more effort I had to put into this review, I think it was more effective then the first time around. This time we had at least two other people reviewing our papers which allows for more depth in analysis. Also with two people there is different perspectives that give opportunity for more critique so that we can develop are papers more effectively. Having each of our groups papers allowed us to have time to read over a look with great intent on where we thought changes could be made. All-in-all I would say this time around was better then the first.

A piece of my analysis.

From the post, it is feasible to determine that Maj. Pain (for lack of a name his blog ID will suffice) feels quite passionately about the topic of overcoming mistakes and turning them into advantages. In his own words he uses the analogy of getting back on the horse after we have fallen off. He uses this analogy to express the importance of not giving up when we fail and that it is important to keep trying and improving from our failures. If you aren’t familiar with this analogy, imagine a cowboy who just gets a new horse that is untrained for riding. Naturally the horse will buck under the strange rider and may at times through the cowboy from the saddle, but the cowboy must get back up on the horse if he wants to train him for riding. No matter how many times the cowboy is thrown he must get back up, like in life, and continue to work towards completing the goal. This analogy, in itself, is a very effective tool that Maj. Pain uses because the analogy is referred to on a wide spread bases and is easy to associate with. While not everyone will have experienced the exact sensation of being thrown off a horse and then getting back up to ride the animal again, the commonality of the expression and the simplicity of visualizing such an event make the analogy an effective tool to explain his point about not letting failures keep us down.

Figurative Language in Review Analysis blog post.

Maj. Pain uses a number of metaphors in his blog to help the reader understand the point he is trying to get across. The point he is trying to make is that no matter if you mess up, you have to overcome it and continue on with your life, job, or whatever it may be.  One such metaphor that he uses is in reference to a football kicker punting the ball into the stands. If you are familiar with football then you would know that this action is generally a real bad display of a kicker's ability and can often times hurt his team.

I believe this metaphor is effective in getting Maj. Pain's point across because it gives a mental picture of an action construed to be very bad. While there will be a few readers who won't have seen a punt into the stands, most people have seen or at least understand  the metaphor expressed. The idea that the kicker, after making the bad kick, must continue the game and perform the next kick to his best ability is what Maj. Pain is trying to explain. If the kicker dwells on the bad kick then he may lose focus, and as Maj. Pain says, "they man up to it, take responsibility for it... and soldier on." In all I would say that the metaphor used is indeed very effective because of the visual effect that that metaphor gives to the context.

Rough Draft for Analysis

The following literary work is an analysis of the quality and effectiveness rhetoric which is used in a particular literary work used as a post on a blog. The title of the post is "You failed-- but then what did you do," written by someone who calls himself Maj. Pain. His writing is meant to inspire the audience to take advantage of the mistakes they make and use those mistakes as opportunities to learn and become better people. While the tone in which Maj. Pain writes is enthusiastic and emotionally compelling, it also reflects a sense of hard nose, lack of compassion which may not attract some of the readers to heed his advice. As well the many mistakes in grammar and punctuation leave it wanting in a sophistication that would usually entail professional advice.

From the post, it is feasible to determine that Maj. Pain (for lack of a name his blog ID will suffice) feels quite passionately about the topic of overcoming mistakes and turning them into advantages. The tone in which he leaves his post is one that would inspire many readers to heed his advice and push through the lows of our lives. In his words he uses the analogy of getting back on the horse after falling off. This analogy, in itself, is a very effective tool that Maj. Pain uses because the analogy is referred to on a wide spread bases and is easy to associate with. While not everyone will have experienced the exact sensation of being thrown off a horse and then getting back up to ride the animal again, the commonality of the expression and the simplicity of visualizing such an event make it an effective tool to explain his point.

Along with the analogy of falling down, he uses metaphors associated with different occupations. Each creates an understandable association with his argument that many people of the audience will understand. One of those deals with sports, where in a player makes a mistake [the example used is punting the ball into the stands, referring to football] but he forgets about that one time and works to rectify the mistake. At the same time he alludes to those who make mistakes and then overcome them as being professionals. What I like in this classification is that he is shadowing toward the idea that while everyone makes mistakes, include professionals of one occupation or another, a true “professional” is one who has learned to recognize and overcome individual flaws. This type of word play invokes a desire to not just simply accomplish jobs, but become so good at a job to be classified as a professional.

Maj. Pain brings greater emphasis to his writing by adding to his post a powerful quote from Abraham Lincoln. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” Having this quote inserted in the text brings a lot of validity to Maj. Pain’s rhetoric. It gives a lot of stability to the topic at hand having a quote from a historical figure like Abraham Lincoln confirm to the same idea about not giving up. One of the major reasons Maj. Pain keeps pushing for the audience to overcome mistakes is that many of us are leaders in the world. Whether it be leaders of industry or of soldiers like he seems to be, he makes it apparent that a good leader is to be able to effectively push through personal mistakes and learn from them so that he can more appropriately lead. Who could be a better example of this idea then Abraham Lincoln.

So while I applaud Maj. Pain’s use of different tools as effective and relative, I do believe that because of mistakes in the way of grammar and sentence structure do take away from some of the strength of the post. For one thing, incoherent sentence can break up the mood of what is being written and distract a reader from the message which is trying to be relayed. Though a minor thing, repetitive mistakes eventually lead to a disinterest in the writing. The post itself is captivating throughout, but a bit more finery in the writing would bring an extra level of sophistication to the argument while not distracting the reader with simple grammatical discrepancies. That being said, Maj. Pain does put a bit of his own personality into the post which offers the audience a glimpse at the man writing, so as to make a more personal connection and trust that the one writing is in fact genuine with his argument.

So to summarize, I do believe this post is effective in influencing its readers to overcome mistakes and use those opportunities to improve. I feel that a number of excellent tools were used and that they effectively portray what the writer is intending to proclaim. And while the mistakes in grammar and sentence structure do make a hindrance to portions of the text, the overall tone is maintained throughout the post. After reading this post for myself, I do feel inspired to work past my own failures and become a better person by learning from those mistakes.

Thesis Statement

 The title of the post is "You failed-- but the what did you do," written by someone who calls himself  Maj. Pain. His writing is meant to inspire the audience to take advantage of the mistakes they make and use them as opportunities to learn and become better people. While the tone in which Maj. Pain writes is enthusiastic and emotionally compelling, it also reflects a sense of hard nose, lack of compassion which may not attract some of the readers to heed his advice. As well the many mistakes in grammar and punctuation leave it wanting in a sophistication that would usually entail professional advice.