(A Rogerian discussion addressed to people who support deportation.)

Protestor: What are your own views about the United States should handle the problem of 11 million illegal immigrants in the country?

I personally believe that as long as they go through the process to attain citizenship, meaning that they will have to participate in paying taxes just like all other Americans, then they should have the right to stay.

Protestor: In what ways have you benefitted from the presence of illegal workers?

I haven’t come into much contact with illegal immigrants, so I can’t say that they have benefitted me at all.

Protestor: Should the government try to establish a path to citizenship for them?

Yes, only if they are willing to participate in all duties and responsibilities of an American citizens. In my own opinion, there should be longer paths to citizenship like in some countries in Europe where you have to prove that you can maintain a job and property through a work visa.

Protestor: Deport only those who have a criminal record?

If they have been properly sentenced for their crimes in the past, there should be no reason to deport someone because of a past criminal record unless accused and brought to court again.

I completely understand the feeling of having an opportunity taken by someone who might not deserve it. It’s difficult to see this phenomenon happening all over the country where illegal immigrants are taking jobs for less money and not being taxed for it. They should have to be held to the same standard as the rest of the citizens in the United States. There is now an evident issue concerning the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries for a cheaper amount of money, and it seems as though illegal immigrants are doing the same thing but are coming to the jobs.

While all of those feelings make sense, we must not forget why they came to America in the first place. On the Statue of Liberty, the famous phrase, “Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free,” is written. At what point did this powerful sentence diminish in value? The Anglican Protestants in colonial times sought relief from religious persecution. The Irish and eventually German families came across the pond in search of work, land, and wealth. The same must be true for illegal immigrants today. They are simply people in search of a better life with nothing but illegal immigration to give themselves hope. Instead of moving a mass of 11 million potential citizens that can do their part and pay taxes, we should at least give them a chance to earn the privilege of becoming an American citizen.

Supporting Gun Control

1. What is the angle of vision and degree of advocacy of the site? How does the selection of images, links to articles, and use of “facts” and “fact sheets” indicate an angle of vision?  The article, It’s Time to Ban Guns. Yes, All of Them, written by Phoebe Maltz Bovy, a writer for the New Republic,  has a radically liberal perspective of gun control. There is only one image: a picture of police officers putting confiscated guns into their database. The complete lack of facts and fact sheets shows that this is merely just an opinionated speech.
2. Look for images of women on your site. How do they construct women differently and imply differences in women’s concerns about guns?  There are no images of women on this website, but the fact that the author is female and that she is preaching leftist ideals leads the reader to believe that some, but certainly not to include all, women are very concerned with the continued ownerships of guns for citizens.
3. What range of underlying values does the site appeal to? How do words and images create viewer awareness of these underlying values?  This site appeals to the liberal values shared by many radical democrats. The activist attitude of this article is the main force that drives the awareness of gun control.
4. How does the site use logos, ethos, and pathos to sway readers toward its point of view?  The most utilized persuasion technique used in this article is pathos by means of distracting the attention of the reader on anti-gun legislation to such things as the statement that anti-abortion legislators weren’t convinced through the Roe v. Wade case, or that the NRA doesn’t care about “concerns of small-town whites, as well as deeply committed to fighting police brutality against blacks nationwide,” as Bovy claims. Such accusations are meant to divert from the subject to make it seem like guns cause even more trouble than expected.

Reference: <https://newrepublic.com/article/125498/its-time-ban-guns-yes-them>

Against Gun Control

1. What is the angle of vision and degree of advocacy of the site? How does the selection of images, links to articles, and use of “facts” and “fact sheets” indicate an angle of vision?  The NRA article, Gun Control Supporters Unhinged: New Republic Says “Ban Guns – All of Them”, alternatively has a radically conservative stance on gun control. A single image of a pistol being confined by chains and an old lock, possibly to note that the movement to increase gun control is not effective and easy to remove. In this article too, there is not much more data than its counterpart in the other article.
2. Look for images of women on your site. How do they construct women differently and imply differences in women’s concerns about guns?  There is no hint of the woman’s concerns about gun rights, most likely because the NRA is an organization that extends to both men and women.
3. What range of underlying values does the site appeal to? How do words and images create viewer awareness of these underlying values?  The NRA appeals to anyone who wants to keep their 2nd Amendment rights as just that, a right, instead of a privilege. This article is not much more mature and data-proven than the other site, so the NRA’s beliefs about further restriction of guns grabs the attention of the reader to embrace the same opinions.
4. How does the site use logos, ethos, and pathos to sway readers toward its point of view?  Again, pathos is the driving force of the NRA’s argument as well. They focus quite a lot on Hillary Clinton and her constant battle with the NRA over gun restrictions. Although at the end of the article the NRA said that there are roughly one million gun owners in the country who have the opportunity to unite and defeat the proposed legislation, there wasn’t enough empirical data to prove why gun ownership will make homes safer and give people a sense of security. Instead, they respond to the other article with the same, almost juvenile taunts. These two articles, therefore, are used only to persuade the reader instead of finding the best solution to this nation-wide problem.

Reference: <https://www.nraila.org/articles/20151211/gun-control-supporters-unhinged-new-republic-says-ban-guns-all-of-them>

Minimum Wage Argument #1

1. What genre of argument is this? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument? The New York Times article, The minimum wage may have losers, falls into the genre of articles in public affairs magazines. An article from this genre tells the reader that the subject not only reflects the views of the magazine but also covers a wide range of opinions about the same argument.
2. Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials and what is his or her investment in the issue?  The article was written by Noam Scheiber. He earned his degree in mathematics from Tulane University and his masters in economics from Oxford University. He has held various jobs at notable press companies, such as the New Republic, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and New York magazine. (Reference: http://www.cnbc.com/noam-scheiber/). His investment on the issue is to educate people on the negative effects of raising the minimum wage on a state-wide range.
3. What audience is he or she writing for?  Scheiber is writing to an audience mostly consisting of middle-upper class conservatives who want to understand why an increase in minimum wage is a bad idea, most likely so they can start developing their own opinions.
4. What motivating occasion prompted the writing?  This article was inspired by the legislation that was put into effect in New York and California that would gradually increase the minimum wage to $15/hour.
5. What is the author’s purpose?  Scheiber’s purpose is near the middle of the continuum of truth-seeking to persuasion, because he is attempting to find the best solution to the problem, while at the same time he disapproves of the new legislation and he wants others to think that way as well.
6. What information about the publication helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?  Scheiber relies heavily on the data and opinions of John Horton of New York University and Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts. Horton used an online website that offers private jobs to test what would happen if employers using the website were forced to pay a higher minimum wage. The result was either that employers were hiring more productive employees to do the same amount of work in a shorter period of time, so that they amount of payment might equal out, or that the employers would no longer be able to pay for employees. He used this example in his argument to show that if the minimum wage is increased, especially nationwide, there would be less jobs for unskilled laborers, businesses would close as a result of bankruptcy, and the middle-class wages would go up to maintain a higher salary than the new minimum wage.

Reference:

<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/business/economy/national-minimum-wage-.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FMinimum%20Wage&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0>

Minimum Wage Argument $2

1. What genre of argument is this? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument?  The publication, The impact of raising the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020 on workers, businesses, and the economy, is from the advocacy website, Economic Policy Institute (EPI). This genre entails that the publications will clearly epitomize the owner of the website, and that its sole purpose is to promote their opinions to their audience.
2. Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials and what is his or her investment in the issue?  The author is David Cooper, the Senior Economic Analyst at the Economic Policy Institute. His investment on the issue was, in this case, to speak at a Democratic caucus to deliver his argument for increasing the minimum wage.
3. What audience is he or she writing for?  His audience is for low-middle class democrats.
4. What motivating occasion prompted the writing?  Cooper was motivated to present his findings at the Democratic caucus as a result of the protests of minimum wage earners across the country and the upcoming 2016 election.
5. What is the author’s purpose?  Cooper’s purpose is to educate low-middle class people on the positive economic effects of increasing the national minimum wage.
6. What information about the publication helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?  The first four endnotes were from the EPI website itself, and the other three were from economic studies of the minimum wage. Sometimes Cooper uses actual data from those sources, but other times he is simply saying the “research has shown” line said by someone without enough data.

Reference:

<http://www.epi.org/publication/the-impact-of-raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-12-by-2020-on-workers-businesses-and-the-economy-testimony-before-the-u-s-house-committee-on-education-and-the-workforce-member-forum/>