classification and their divisions

Classifications become very useful when writing essays. They are the big overall topic of each individual section. These classifications can be broken down into sub categories that we class divisions. The break off from the classification and each add to the support of the classification.  In the essay that we just read for class.  Each classification was set with a heading. There was an intro- which set up the background. Definitions- which had 3divisions under it. Issues and contrast rhetoric with 4 divisions. It then wrapped everything up with a conclusion. We can use this pattern to help us separate the articles we are using to write our essays. after we separate the classifications, we can then dig into the meat and find the sub categories (divisions) to explain in our essay.

New York Times Definitons

The earth has gone through a number of warming phases. Where the temperature rises above the normal average. Clear back in the prehistoric days, before mankind was even recognized, there was a major warming phase in the earth’s history.  A warming phase can occur from numerous causes. The sun has cycles that can exert extra amounts of heat. This can cause an the earth to heat quickly. warming caused by man kind has been a very large global debate. This debate is over the emission of green house gasses. These gasses like carbon dioxide received the name as a green house gas due to their response in the atmosphere. They allow the suns rays to enter into earth's atmosphere, but when the rays try to escape back into space, the gasses hold them in causing the earth to warm. Man kind releases huge amounts of gasses into the atmosphere, from factories to cars, we all contribute to the problem.


Adaptation is the species ability to change it’s body form to give it a better chance of survival. If a species can’t adapt, then it is lost to history. Charles Darwin, a well-known English naturalist, called this The Process of Natural Selection. Normally Adaptation takes hundreds to thousands of years to accomplish. Its not a very speedy thing.  Evolution is the genetic change from adaptation.


The Sifrhippus is the modern day horses’ prehistoric relative. This ancient horse species was a lot smaller than today’s horse. In fact, it was about the size of a small house cat. This species lived nearly 56 million years ago! The Sifrhippus was about 12 pounds average weight. It adapted as the climate warmed and the Sifrhippus shrunk in size, each animal then weighed about eight and a half pounds.

The Power of Definitions

Why is it important for us to define things? Its an important part of our communication skills. Every person is at different levels of what they know. How can a rocket scientist come into a class of freshmen and start teaching class about huge equations, things that the mer freshmen had never even hear of. Defining things will help our audiences' understanding grow. When we are writing we should never just assume our audience understands what we know is happening in our story. We also might need to pay attention to words that we use in certain conversations. Like the Professor was talking about with the word "BAD"  or even "SICK".  A group of guys skate boarding my comment on their friends neat skate boarding trick. They might call it sick....which actually means that the trick was really cool. But if their is a parent in the audience or even a doctor, sick has a whole new meaning. Defining the situation is important!

The article that I chose on New York Times is : A Tiny Horse That Got Even Tinier as the Planet Heated Up.  In this article, it talks about how scientist have just come across a study of the Sifrhippus, a prehistoric relative to the horse. Scientists have no more then fossils of this ancient animal, but all of these fossils (ancient bone) are indicating to scientist that these little horses went through adaptation. Adaptation is where a species of animals, over a long period of time, changes to be able to survive in their environment. The same thing happened with this cat-size horse. During the time period this horse species was living, the temperature of the earth was greatly increasing. The horses' bodies (through generations) lost weight and got even smaller. The article then connects this to how the earth is warming again, and connects with will man kind be able to adapt to change in our environment? 

blog 7a

Using subject specific rhetorical terms in our writing is important. They help a great deal especially when writing essays. When I am writing and I have a message  I need to convey. I try and think of specific ways I can use rhetorical devices to help my audience understand what my essay is conveying.

I have really enjoyed what we have been discussing in class. I have learned a lot about visual rhetoric. I knew pictures have power in sending a message to people, but I never realized the extent of how far our society has gone in using this tool. The last assignment  we read all about this. Pictures can be deceiving! Professor talked about our country's recruiting tools. How the images make us think that if we join, we will be doing amazing life saving tasks. He said that this is not always the case. Its good that we are learning these things in class. Understanding this can help us in the future.

Compare and Contrast

We use the tools of compare and contrast on a daily basis. We can even use these tools with out acknowledging it. We can compare and contrast pictures such as the assignment we are doing in class. We can use these tools in life situations like our examples in class of the Powell devastation, or hearing of how the military has affected individuals. We compare and contrast what we watch on television.  We see people who we image are something spectacular, and then we contrast what we see with ourselves. We sometimes compare ourselves to models we see in books, t.v., magazines, and the internet. Most of these images, I believe, are photoshopped.  This example of compare and contrast can hurt a person's self esteem.

In class we talked about point by point. I find this really useful for me to go one point at a time for each argument. This helps me see the similarities and differences of both sides of what I am comparing. In this last essay we read about the spider, the teacher talked about using a Venn Diagram. This tool I learned clear back early in Elementary,  yet I still use this to get a visual in my head of the differences and similarities. This can be a helpful tool when we are writing our upcoming essay. We can draw two overlaying two circles and write specific points that support each argument in the different circles. In the middle overlaying section,  we write out the similarities.  This creates a visual which can help us organize our upcoming essay draft.