Seth Martin Mundhe
1583 State Rt 23 Apt 5
Butler, New Jersey 07405 mundhe@aim.com EDUCATION
Ph.D., English
University of Washington, Expected June 2014
Dissertation:
Advisor:
M.A., English
University of Idaho, June 2007
B.A., English
Arizona State University (ASU) June 2004
LECTURE/TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Teaching Assistant, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2008 to 2010)
Rhetoric in North America, 7 quarters, 42 undergraduates per section
Taught the larger section twice a week, held smaller discussion sessions weekly, marked and graded papers.
Teaching Assistant, University of Idaho (2011 to 2013)
English Composition, 2 quarters, 144 undergrads per section
Marked and Graded papers, gave 5 to 7 lectures on each quarter
PROFESSIONAL/ACADEMIC
Despite there being hundreds of video game releases every year, most of these games are unoriginal and therefore unplayable. There are countless video game genres, but one of the most popular genres in the past few years have been the zombie games, also called survival games. I was thoroughly convinced that all the games in this genre were clichéd and overdone, until I played the video game The Last of Us. Even though it is a survival game, the focus is not on gruesome zombies or gratuitous violence, making it already vastly different from the others. Instead, the focus is on telling a story. Between the gorgeous graphics, serene music, and flawless acting, it already goes beyond being just another “zombie game,” but this isn’t even accounting
The article “The Coddling Of The American Mind”, written by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, was written about how teachers are afraid of what they are allowed to say during in class because of the emotional effect on the students. While writing the article the authors have many examples of logos, ethos, and pathos. The logos of the article appeals to logic by presenting facts and statistics. The writers provide definitions of words such as microaggression and trigger warning. While explaining the definitions they go on to give real world examples to further the understanding of the words. Also statistics of the amount of mental health issues are provided to enhance the logos. Secondly to make the article more appealing is adding an emotional
Clive Thompson is a journalist, blogger and writer. He mainly focuses his writing on science and technology but this one chapter from his book Smarter than you think, “Public thinking,” has put a spin on writing and technology. Multiple times he talks about writing in many different forms. For example, he speaks of writing on blogs, on internet short stories (or fan fiction novels), in schools, in studies, and even on a regular basis. Thomson is trying to explain to his readers how writing, and the sharing of information across the internet, is beneficial to our society and ones well-being. In my readings of Thompson’s excerpt, I will examine Thomson’s examples and show how they are relevant and that it is beneficial.
Propaganda is usually associated with brainwashing and manipulation, however it is justifiable when it is used to promote safety and health. For example, in public service announcements to warn the citizens of hazards and to promote safety to protect the people from the dreadful habits of the modern world. The main purpose of PSA’s are to make people aware and to make them act to reach a goal.
In order for an article to be considered reliable and credible, it needs to follow a certain criteria. This includes having rhetorical appeals and devices such as logos, ethos, and pathos. The article must also include direct quotes from reliable sources to be considered plausible. Two articles, “Time to Assert American Values” and “Rough Justice: A Caning in Singapore Stirs Up a Fierce Debate About Crime and Punishment” both tell about the caning of Michael Fey in singapore. Only one article is considered reliable to me.
In the excerpt from John Green’s Looking for Alaska, the adolescent speaker’s attitude toward his parent’s disappointment is best described as detached. Based on the diction of the passage, the reader could infer that the speaker feels separated emotionally from his parents. The author uses “imaginary” to convey the speaker’s parents’ cluelessness about their son having friends that would be willing to attend a party. The speaker feels as if his parents are only trying to shape him in their image, instead of taking the time to truly understand their son. The syntax of the passage gives off a negative connotation that allows a reader to infer the speaker’s disconnected tone towards his parents. The repetition of the word “pity” shows how the
Lost in America is a text on how the generations before us were set with a language barrier. Breaking this barrier could a have benefited us in countless ways. It starts from beginning to end, talking about how we begin to change our aspects for foreign countries. Douglas McGray states that students did not study abroad in the world war generations. America basically shuts its door on trying to learn different languages. This hurts us in the wars and foreign affairs. As time went on, this problem begins to get fixed and languages begin to enter the “American,” language. He writes “Lost in America,” with the experience and knowledge through other people. Every person learns through two ways: Through Experience or someone else’s experience. Douglas
In “Lost in America”, the audience Douglas McGray is attempting to target is the part of American society that is concerned with the American educational system and foreign affairs. In the article the author talks about how Americans, mainly American students, have little to no knowledge about the world around them. The author goes on to speak about how Americans would benefit in worldwide business by speaking another language. The purpose in the story was to discuss and inform concerned individuals of how Americans, especially American kids, are falling behind in language.
Finally the last rhetorical devices is Logos. Logos means an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason. Which in other words persuading the audience by using logical facts. In The Roots of American Order, it explains Cicero’s idea when governing a republic was: natural law. Natural Law according to John Lock is law that everyone has during a state of nature which is traces back to God. He explains in his Second Treatise of Government book:
While Sinclair was writing an important message to the American people he did not simply put the words on a page. He used third person narrative to describe how Jurgis was feeling and what he was experiencing. Sinclair’s tone is sympathetic. He writes in a way that shows that the victims of the industrial age are the poor working class. His worldview is shown to the audience through the eyes of his main character Jurgis and the conflicts with the family members and other people in his life.
Narratives of documentary as a craft of expression of metaphor and the soul of rhetoric have attracted many modern film scholars (Dorst 268-281). Discussing folk life of the films of Errol Morris, Dorst feels that ‘text’ and ‘apparatus’ in a documentary limits the usefulness of hybridity as a productive theoretical metaphor. Comparing the narrative structure of documentary filmmaker William Manchester and Truman Capote, Donald Pizer suggests that documentary narrative can vary in form. Its adaptability suggests that it will continue to serve as a vehicle of experimental narrative by serious writers as well as a form of the higher journalism. Like all literary artists, the modern writer is confronted by the problem of the seemingly rival claims
The authors of “Coddling of the American Mind,” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, use ethos, logos, and pathos convey their negative stance regarding trigger warnings and the effect they on education. Lukianoff and Haidt’s use of rhetorical appeal throughout the article adds to the author’s credibility and the strength of the argument against increasing the use of trigger warnings in school material. The authors, Lukianoff and Haidt, rely heavily upon the use of logos, such as relations between conflicts surrounding trigger warnings and other historical conflicts impacting student ethics. Examples of the use of these logical appeals are the relation between the Columbine Massacre and the younger generations ideology. The author goes on to mention other societal turning points such
Many times we hear things through media and don’t actually listen to what they may say. When people hear something through mass media, they don’t realize that there is a person’s point of view stated in the story. And many times what people don’t see is that there is no such thing as an objective point of view. This is called Rhetoric; when someone states their point of view using words that either sway an audiences opinions one way or another. Rhetoric can be found in many places such as a T.V add or a commercial, magazine articles and advertisements, the news, and even radio commercials.
Rhetoric is the art of effective speaking or writing, and persuasion. Most people use rhetoric numerous of times in their everyday life without their concern or knowing.
‘Rhetoric is the study and art of writing and speaking well, being persuasive and knowing how to compose successful writing and presentations.’ (The University of Iowa, Department of Rhetoric, n.d.)