The discourse community I chose is life as a first-time college student. Though everyone who joins college may have a different reason for joining, we all share the same end goal; to learn, graduate and get a job in our field of study. We should have joined the circus with all the balancing acts we have to perfect; home life, work life, kids' school life, our school life, it can be stressful and overwhelming. But my girls are my motivation, like so many parents out there, we are doing it for our kids! But what I didn’t realize were all the dinners I’d miss, or the conversations with my girls that I’d only get to hear second hand. The sacrifice it takes is almost unbearable. Do my girls know I’m doing this for them by bettering OUR lives. And the fear of uncertainty, what if I don’t get it, what if this is all for nothing? The questions of doubt, bouncing off each positive thought I once had.
In Trevor Timm’s article, “The US Government should tell the public what it knows about UFO’s,” Trevor Timm argues that it is in the best interest of the public for the government to be transparent about their knowledge regarding aliens and all that they know about them.
Described in the article titled, “This Former NASA Engineer has debunked pretty much every online UFO Sighting,” James Oberg, a former NASA Engineer, explains how he trolled through every online claim of an alien sighting, and debunked each one using science. He goes on to explain every sighting is simply space dandruff, and our eyes are set up for Earth’s slow movements, that we don’t know what space looks like. Lighting, angles, everything plays a part in how our eyes see/comprehend/process what we saw.
“3I/ATLAS gets sudden nongravitational acceleration,” an article written based on Dr. Abraham (Avi) Loeb’s claims that the Manhattan sized “comet” accelerated when it reached its closest point to the sun, adding to what he believes to be proof of alien technology.
Joe Rogan, a podcaster, has interviewed Dr. Abraham (Avi) Loeb, a theoretical physicist, about his view on a mysterious interstellar object; a Manhattan sized “comet” that Dr. Loeb believes to be proof of alien technology.
The discourse community I chose to write about is first time college students. The easiest part of writing this analysis was describing firsthand my views, my experiences and explaining how I got to this point in life. The most difficult part was describing the terms I have learned within this community because I feel I haven't learned enough, but I understand it will all come in due time. My peer review claimed I love to use commas, that it must be my favorite button on the keyboard. But I beg to differ, I believe my favorite button is DELETE because I am so indecisive, I constantly change my mind and DELETE, DELETE!
Brainstorming for my comparative textual analysis:
Trevor Timm article explains the idea that the government has evidence of alien existence and are withholding it from the public. Government transparency is important to foster trust and accountability between government and the people.
Dr. Loeb believes alien activity exists and we have proof, 3I/ATLAS, a comet the size of Manhatten accelarated against Earth's gravitational force, so his only explanation is it must be aliens. But given the theory by former nasa engineer, it is simply space dandruff and anything we see in the sky is moving too fast for our eyes to see and our brains to comprehend, leading us to constantly speculate and use our imagination to fill in the blanks.
Aliens or UFO’s and the arguments that arise when they are mentioned, was the last thing I expected to have to read, analyze and write a rhetorical analysis about, especially in college. But to analyze any argument, whether it’s about dogs, cats, politics, aliens; you know there has to be a main claim and at least two reasons why their claim is legit in order for it to be persuasive. And the process for that is recognizing Pathos, Ethos, and Logos within an argument, that ensures the claimant has Pathos or emotions within his claim that will reach others and tug at their heartstrings, Logos or logic/communication behind his claim that will really get the readers thinking, possibly doing their own research, and Ethos or experts within his circle, especially that other readers idolize, to prove the claimants argument.
Peer review is very interesting, you are rarely paired with someone who thinks and feels the same way as you so it opens your mind to more ideas, or maybe they explain it in a way you never thought, now you’re rethinking your whole thought process. Or vice versa. I am a very simple minded person, I don’t read between the lines and I don’t think outside the box, I am a very “This is it” type of person, so to take an argument and break it into parts, analyse it and say whether it is persuasive or not was rather difficult for me, because my small children can convince me of almost anything, so what I found in the article by Trevor Timm was convincing that the government should be transparent about the information they do have, but he didn’t convince me that they even know more information than what has been shared. With that being said, I don’t think my final essay is terrible, but as with all writing, there is always room for improvement.
Reflection on my comparative textual analysis written about UFOs.
I was not happy at the start of this subject, I felt that fast food and how bad it is for humans and what it does to your body, I mean, it being the main reason America is obese, at least there is real information and facts and studies about fast food and all the effects it has on the human body. But aliens? They seem to only exist in SYFY movies. You know, Men in Black, Armageddon, Independence Day, even the movie Signs depicts some form of alien life force amongst us. But if there are aliens, would they be anything like the creatures in the movies? I'm afraid the logic behind it just isn't there; the telescope lenses we have now are so powerful and yet we have no proof of aliens. Our skies are filled with satellites, airplanes, spacecraft, if there are aliens up there, I believe we would have made a huge discovery by now. Add to that, the knowledge of gases found in space are the same as the gases released from algae found in Earth's oceans? And how most "alien sightings" happen near bodies of water? Coincidence? I don't think so. My idea of aliens and mermaids coexisting deep in the ocean sounds more plausible than aliens in outer space. Considering only 5% of the Earth's oceans have been explored and only 10% mapped out with modern technology, what lives in the other 95%?!