Visual Argument

My bibliography is on the Snitz forum, as Blogger always messes up my indentation and formatting.

It's My Bibliography!

Here is my bibliography for my upcoming research paper:

Works Cited

Blumenthal, Karen. The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Fiancial Life. New York: Three Rivers, 2009. Print.

Clark, Ken. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Out of Debt. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.

"Credit cards go after college students - USATODAY.com." News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. Web. 06 Nov. 2009. http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/2008-03-30-credit-cards-college_N.htm.

"Creditors Scramble for College Students - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking news, politics, online news, world news, feature stories, celebrity interviews and more - ABC News. Web. 06 Nov. 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/creditors-scramble-college-students/Story?id=8754841&page=2.

Hall, Margaret. Credit Cards and Checks (Earning, Saving, Spending/ 2nd Edition). Chicago: Heinemann, 2007. Print.

Minden, Cecilia. Using credit wisely. Ann Arbor, Mich: Cherry Lake Pub., 2008. Print.

Orman, Suze. The Road to Wealth, Revised Edition. New York: Riverhead Hardcover, 2008. Print.

Hope that's propperly formatted, Mrs. Bell!

College Students and Credit Cards

So I'm going to be writing about college students and debt (mostly credit card debt). I guess that I'll have to define terms like "debt" "credit card" "college student" and probably some others. The one thing that I want to look at really closely is how credit card companies target college students because of brand loyalty. If they can get a students first card to be of thier brand, then that student is much more likely to keep getting moar and more credit cards from that same company.

I guess if you have any ideas or suggestions, or know of any good books or sources for me to check out, just comment here!

-- Jeremy

An Appeal to Ethos...

This ad is an appeal to Ethos, also known as an ethical appeal. The ad boldly proclaims "Trust The Brand," and then continues into a graph of information in an attempt to win your trust and patronage. The main ethical appeal is the attempt to convince using facts. The graph shows the Maxima Racing Oil clearly outperforming the competing brands, both in the full synthetic and semi-synthetic categories. This is also a demonstration of fairness, by compairing itself to competing brands and allowing the user to decide for themself.

Yet another appeal is that to quality. Directly under "Trust The Brand" is a smaller line of text: "Maxima - Constantly improving performance and protection." By telling you that they are constantly striving for higher quality, they are attempting to convince you that you should buy from them to ensure that you have the best motor oil for your racing machine.

An Appeal to Logos...

This ad, created during the 2008 Presidential campagin by the Republican Jewish Coalition, features a picture of (then) candidate Barack Obama, next to the provacative text "Concerned about Barack Obama? You should be." The ad goes on to say "History has shown that a naive and weak foreign policy has resulted in tragic outcomes for the Jewish people."

This ad uses a historical approach to discourage voters from voting for Barack Obama. It is basically saying "Vote for Barack Obama, and you vote against Jews and Israel!" It is also usin inductive reasoning, by drawing a generalization from previous historical examples.

An Appeal to Pathos...

This poster, created during World War II by the United States Committe for the Care of European Children, is clearly an appeal to Pathos. The children are arriving safely in New York, and it is assumed that they have just come from war-torn Europe, most likely England or Germany. They look greatly pleased to have come safely, and the Statue of Liberty in the background can only mean good things are in store for the future. The large text "SAFE!" above them seems to say "This is what your donations are paying for, helping children to be safe." It is hard to imagine a better appeal to someone's emotions other than using children.

Trade in Your Congress (A.K.A. A Good Visual Agument)

I personally believe that this is one sentiment that we all can (and should, for that matter) get behind. Congress seems to think that the only way to solve our economic troubles is to throw money at it. "300 billion here, 3 billion here," Congress cries! "Oh look, what's this? The auto business is in trouble? Poor them! Throw some money at it, that will fix it right up!" What we really need is a program to trade our clunking congress in, so we can get a rebate on what we really need: good political leadership.