What I Learned

In this class I found the blogs the most useful part of this course. They gave us an opportunity to write regularly without the pressure of having multiple essays due each week. By reading different articles and reflecting on how we see other writers use the ideas that Harris presented, I gained a better understanding of what Harris was trying to communicate. With this understanding, I think I can apply his techniques of forwarding, coming to terms, and countering to my own writing.

The most useful chapter that Harris had was his first one that discussed coming to terms with the writer’s piece. Although I have always been taught to do this, seeing it in words helped my actively do this when reading and writing in this class and other classes.

Essay Number Two

Within the news, a single movement or action acts like a seed growing into a leafy plant; the action turns into a story, and from that story other stories branch off and grow like leaves. This plant-like network of stories is called a press sphere. One bunch of stories comes from the single act of Michelle Obama, planting the seed of combating obesity in America’s eyes.

            Recently, Michelle Obama celebrated the anniversary of her Let’s Move campaign to kick off an eventful second year. She has been touring around the country to change school menus and encourage children to stay active for an hour each day. As the end of the first year arrived, Mrs. Obama tried to refresh her campaign to keep receiving media attention and spread her message to all of America.

            Several blogs regularly track Mrs. Obama’s movements during her campaign. These blogs include The White House Blog and the Let’s Move Blog. When the first year anniversary came on February 9^th, the Let’s Move Blog posted an article about Michelle Obama’s trip to Iowa, where she danced with kids and gave a speech to give kudos to the state of Iowa for trying to stay healthy by eating nutritionally and exercising (Curtis 1). The White House Blog forwarded this exact post to try to reach an audience that the other blog may have not reached.

            Besides blogs posting about this anniversary day, The New York Times described the day to readers in a short article by Mark Landler. Although no one participated in commenting on this article to create a discussion, the New York Times linked other articles related to the Let’s Move Campaign to keep the story alive.  An article, “New Rules for School Meals Aim at Reducing Obesity,” that the New York Times featured that received much attention discussed the how the Obama administration announced new rules for subsidized school lunches. These rules add more healthy food – like vegetables and fruit – and less healthy options from foods – like fatty milk and excess potatoes (Nixon 1).

            Many people responded to this article in the comment section. From sixty-two comments, a few main ideas were presented. One idea was that these rules imposed by the government will cost schools more money, and that the government will not help pay for these changes in the school lunches. Though the additional cost was mentioned in the article, no system on how to support the financial aspect of the program was mentioned, and no other article tells of a White House plan to pay for it either. For now, that discussion is at a dead end. The next point that was shared across several of the comments was pure support of getting kids to eat healthier. In retaliation to the pure support, one person commented on the article by bringing in a new aspect to the discussion: whether the kids will eat the healthy foods that the government requires schools to carry. This anonymous person claims that the kids will not eat all the healthy food that is given to them and instead will throw it away and waste it. He backs up his claim with a link to another news article from CBS Los Angeles. This article reports how kids stopped buying school lunches and brought their own “junk food” to school. With this article, the notion of Michelle Obama’s campaign to integrate healthy practices into schools and children’s lives is challenged.

            However, this challenge has not stopped Mrs. Obama from promoting her campaign against obesity to America. Michelle Obama appears on talk shows such as Ellen DeGeneres and Jay Leno. After appearing on these shows, Mrs. Obama and the Let’s Move campaign continue to stay in the news. The Huffington Post included an article that described Michelle Obama’s fun interactions with Ellen DeGeneres which included a push-up contest between the two. Having seen Mrs. Obama do push-ups, the article claims that she is a great role model for the Let’s Move campaign that she is leading. The Huffington Post also includes other events that Mrs. Obama has done to promote the Let’s Move campaign like dancing with school children and appearing on the TV show iCarly. In addition to continuing the story, the webpage displays constant tweets about Michelle Obama that feed in to the public reaction of her campaign to reduce childhood obesity.

            Other visits with talk-show hosts created responses from new papers as well. Michelle Obama visited the Jay Leno show and had him eat healthy snacks on his show as the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The article “Michelle Obama Pushes Jay Leno to Eat Healthy Foods” begins by describing the interaction between Mrs. Obama and Jay Leno, but swiftly switches its focus from her mission to her husbands: the re-election. It goes on to discuss how Mrs. Obama’s campaign could affect the re-election of her husband.

            Returning from the shifted focus from Michelle Obama’s initiative to her husband’s re-election, the Let’s Move Blog links a post about her visit to the Top Chef from the anniversary post – mentioned at the beginning. The Let’s Move Blog describes how all the chefs tied because “when you pair great chefs with schools ‘everybody wins’” (Curtis 1). In order to further promote the story, the Let’s Move Blog gives a link to a website that shows the new project of chefs pairing with schools for good-tasting, healthy food.

            In addition to making appearances on popular television shows, the White House Blog notes that Michelle Obama met at the restaurant Olive Garden to discuss healthy eating habits with parents and change the menu of the kids menu to offer healthier choices. Below this post, the White House Blog forwards an article that Michelle Obama wrote from CNN.  In her article, “Working Together for the Health of America’s Children,” Mrs. Obama draws on the actions of congress, schools, chefs, celebrities, and food manufacturers to show that people have a unified effort to help her cause.

            One article from CBS News wraps up all of the others when discussing Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. The article, “Michelle Obama Marks 2^nd Year of Obesity Campaign,” touches on the anniversary celebration, the visits to schools, the appearances on celebrity talk shows, and the visit to Olive Garden. The article continues to extend the discussion by saying that Michelle Obama has in fact made a great self-image for herself and will be “an asset for the president’s re-election efforts” (1). In addition to this, the article uses the opinion of Marion Nestle – a food and nutrition professor at New York University, to give kudos to Mrs. Obama because she has no real legal power, yet she has brought this issue to national attention and is trying to create change. Nestle then goes on to comment that only time will tell if her campaign will actually impact the health and counter the obesity problem that younger generations face.

            In adding to the press sphere, I agree with Nestle that Michelle Obama should be commended for her effort and success of bringing bad nutrition and obesity to the forefront of American thoughts when concerning children. Changing the way children eat in schools is a large part in promoting healthy generations, but efforts need to be extended to teaching parents how to feed their children healthy food for an all-around effect. Also, when the government changes rules for school food, it needs to come up with a way to finance these rule changes so that the school is not completely footing the bill, as many people commented on the New York Times. This story affects every single American in direct or indirect ways. It affects parents and children directly since they are they individuals trying to change to or maintain healthy lifestyles. It affects the rest of us Americans because obesity is a huge health risk in America, and all generations need to stay healthy to reduce healthcare costs, and live longer and more fulfilling lives.

            With the importance of America’s health, the series of stories arising from the press sphere all should get attention from every age group in America. Within this plant-like structure of stories, each leaf reaches a different audience; whether it is people who enjoy comedy shows, people who keep up on politics through blogs like the White House Blog, or just people who have an interest in the news and regularly read newspapers. Through the outreaching leaves, everyone can unite under the knowledge of common information and hopefully help act in a way that will benefit America’s health in the future like Michelle Obama aims to do.

Taking an Approach

Based on Harris’s ideas of “taking an approach,” I would best explain it as reflecting on what influences you as a writer, or even examining what influences others as a writers, then embracing that reflection and applying it to the current piece that one is working on. I was confused how you present this in a piece of writing, though. I don’t know if “taking an approach” is something you do in your head or if you are supposed to include a specific passage about it in your writing. In my type of writing for school, I am leaning more towards that this process is a personal one and you don’t include it in a part of your writing. But, maybe people can include this in a section of their book when they publish it. Harris gives three ways in “taking an approach”; which include acknowledging influences, turning an approach on itself, and reflexivity.

The New York Times could be seen as “taking an approach” by the way that they format their writing. Each type of news article has a style that differs from magazine articles and academic journals. I think it is a well-known fact that many journalists have their inspirations and model their work after a particular person and the ideals they showed when they were journalists. This part of the “taking an approach” showing through on the individual level of the New York Times is an example of Harris’s “acknowledging influences.”

If I understand Harris’s idea of reflectivity, I do think that The White House blog often takes part in this. This includes reflecting on choices like values, language, and methods. The White House blog would have to do this with every article posted because they represent a political party and want that political party to still hold office in the next election. Therefore, with an article that shows a position on supporting abortion, they have reflected and approved focusing on the value of women’s health. This does not give a negative connotation as saying abortion would, and it does stress a value that most women and some men would appreciate.

Revision of White House Blog

The White House Blog posts certain articles for a certain purpose. First, it posts things to advocate the views and actions of people affiliated with the White House. From the president to someone not involved in politics at all like his wife, each article is aimed at raising the approval ratings of Obama and his administration. As previously noted, Michelle Obama tours the country to encourage younger generations to eat healthier and exercise. Between Michelle Obama helping children and President Obama visiting science fairs, how does this not look good to the American public with an election coming up?
On another note, the audience may not be what I previously thought. I still believe that this blog is aimed for concerned citizens and democrats, but, others have noted that it might also serve as a primary source for news sources. For example, the New York Times can get an accurate assessment of what the President's views on a recent topic are by reading the blog. This resource would potentially be an important one for political writers.

In this blog, I focused on my previous blog identifying the audience and purpose of the blog. I tried to use Harris's forwarding technique when I continued the idea that they are trying to gain approval ratings through this blog. I added another example to expand from my first blog by mentioning the President visiting a science fair - something that would aim at giving him a positive view to the American public.
Next, I tried to counter my blog since I have read more posts and have a better idea about who the audience is. In countering, Harris suggested saying "yes, but" to start so that you don't offend the other person (in this case so I don't offend myself). So, I did agree with what I put as the audience the first time, but I also added that news sources could use this as a source as well.

Countering

            When countering an argument, Harris describes ways in which he thinks that positions should be countered so that your work remains credible. Harris discusses three ways to counter another position. First, someone could “argue the other side.” By arguing the other side, a writer can show the usefulness of an idea or term that the writer disagrees with or show the limitations of the writer’s own position. One way that the White House Blog does this is in President Obama’s weekly update speech. Obama admits that China can make things cheaper than we can, which shows the limitations of our manufacturing companies and strength of theirs. But, he continues saying that we can make items at a better quality and uses that focus point to promote his project.

            Next, Harris says that another way to counter an argument is uncovering values. This shows words and concepts that the subject matter has not directly discussed. The White House Blog again displays this through one of President Obama’s speeches, but this time the speech addresses health care. Obama says that a woman has a right to decide to use contraceptives because they affect her own health. This uncovers the value usually not touched on the opposing argument that doesn’t approach women’s rights. Thus, Obama brings to light an issue that looks more favorably on his view than the other.

            The next way to counter an argument is by sharing common ground with an opposing view in order to point out its drawbacks. Harris calls this “dissenting.” Within the most recent posts on the White House Blog, none of the authors have used dissenting as a way of countering an argument. Because they never mention both sides of an argument in this blog, they cannot acknowledge common ground. They may not mention opposing parties in an attempt to show bipartisan effort or not alienate a portion of the country, but in reality it makes the gap between two opposing thoughts wider.

Forwarding

Harris discusses how academic writers need to add to previous texts to formulate their own arguments. In my view, what academic writers do is like what a restaurant does to a recipe. They add one or two special ingredients to the recipe to make it their own and better than any other out there. For example, the restaurant Earls has great sticky toffee pudding. But, Colt and Gray adds a special touch –probably another ingredient – to the dessert that makes it better and unique. Harris calls this “forwarding.” In this view, you are keeping the focus on your own project, but still using the other author’s text. When forwarding, Harris describes four different approaches: illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, and extending. To use the illustrating approach, you look at other texts as examples for your own point. When authorizing, you use the expertise or status of an individual to back up your thinking. Next, when you are borrowing you use terms from another author to help understand your thought process. Last, when extending, you add your own thoughts to concepts from other texts.

            In the White House Blog, they use illustrating most often when forwarding a text. For example, they include letters from average Americans that say how much forty dollars off each paycheck would affect their families. Without the current tax cut, people will lose about forty dollars on each paycheck. In order to argue their point that the tax cut should be extended, they collected letters saying how losing money will negatively affect citizens and posted excerpts on the blog. By adding these letters in, it gives them an advantage of showing the consequences of Washington's actions, and giving the appearance that the government stays close to its people. These excerpts only add to Obama's position on tax cuts, and do not take away anything from the post.

COMPARISON

The White House Blog and the New York Times share a lot of the same information; and likely the New York Times partly feeds off of the White House Blog for information on the president’s perspective on latest bills and his activities. Because the White House Blog is a government website, people can trust the information coming from this blog more than they can trust the information from other blogs. Therefore, this blog probably has more of an impact in the press sphere as a primary source where people – including news journalists – can find information. This gives unique insight into Obama’s positions and goals that any concerned citizen would have an interest in reading, either to back up their position or disagree with Obama. For example, recently the blog posted about Obama’s position on abortion, and showed the feedback of certain organizations. The organizations displayed were only organizations that said favorable things about the president. Also, the blog keeps up with Mrs. Obama’s activities about getting the younger generation in the nation to eat healthier and get exercise. The blog is geared toward painting Obama in a positive light, so the information on the blog does display a bias that people have to balance out. I have not seen the White House blog respond to any New York Times articles or any articles from another news source as other blogs might do. The usual roles of blogging versus news reporting seem to be reversed in this situation.