Annotated Citations for Project 2

"The Future of Farming: The Value of Ecosystem Services in Conventional and Organic Arable Land. An Experimental Approach." The Future of Farming: The Value of Ecosystem Services in Conventional and Organic Arable Land. An Experimental Approach. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.


The author claims that if the US shifts more of its farming towards organic crops, not only will it be more sustainable, but also more profitable. The idea of sustainability goes back to the original article from nature. In order for the world to survive, we must maximize our use of land as well as maximize yields. In comparison to the nature article, the scientific article accepts the ideas of the future of farming.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800907002790



"Agriculture." EEA. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

The author claims that modern agriculture in Europe is a good thing, but has a lot of downsides to it. These downsides include soil erosion and chemical runoff. This article accepts the original article on the future of agriculture because it shares the same beliefs. For example, both articles belief that climate change is changing how crops grow.
http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/agriculture/intro

Hertel, Thomas W. "Climate Change, Agriculture, and Poverty." Oxford Journals. N.p., 1 May 2010. Web.

The author’s argument in this article adds another layer to the climate change discussion and its effects on agriculture. Poverty is not usually connected to climate change, but it is strongly connected to it. Depending on how climate change affects crops around the world, food prices could rise. It is already hard for some to buy groceries and it could possibly get harder.
http://aepp.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/3/355

Rivera-Ferre, Marta G. "The Future of Agriculture." EMBO Reports. N.p., 17 Oct. 2008. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

The author’s argument in this article is to spread awareness about the importance of the future of agriculture. Agriculture is becoming a major issue for politicians, consumers, scientists, and environmentalists. This article also goes into detail on how we should be managing our food production, as the world population continues to rise. This article supports the idea of the main article because it also discusses why we are in food crisis.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/embor.2008.196/abstract



Iglesias, Ana. "Looking into the Future of Agriculture in a Changing Climate." Oxford Journals. N.p., 1 June 2011. Web.

The author’s argument in this article is that food production is strained by human activities. These activities include pollution, urbanization, and large consumption of food. The article states that over the past 20 years, climate change and human activities have changed the way we look into the future of global agricultural production.
http://erae.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/3/427.full.pdf+html

Interdisciplinary Research

Interdisciplinary Work

How to Catalyse Collaboration

Rebekah R. Brown, Ana Deletic, and Tony H. F. Wong believe that connecting the divide between biophysical and the social sciences are crucial. They believe that to achieve this, there are five principles that are to be used. The five principles are forging a shared mission, developing ‘T-shaped’ researchers, nurturing constructive dialogue, giving institutional support, and bridging the research, policy, and practice together. With these five principles Rebekah, Ana, and Tony were able to build a team of disciplinary experts that delivers sustainable water management to multiple cities. This article provides proof that interdisciplinary science is crucial and is beginning to grow in our world.

Interdisciplinary Research by the Numbers

Richard Van Noorden states that interdisciplinary research has been on the rise since the mid-1980s. The analysis in the article shows that research papers have increasingly cited works in other disciplines different from their own. Richard also claims that interdisciplinary research takes time to have an impact. This is supported by the fact that interdisciplinary work is slowly growing around the world.



Integration of Social Science into Research is Crucial

Ana Viseu writes that one proposed solution to a disconnect between research and the needs and concerns of the public is to integrate social scientists such as herself. Ana also argues that too many in the physical and life sciences only allow those in the social sciences to observe what they do but not to disturb it. The social scientists are only brought along as silent partners where their only is job is to care for science. This article shows that even though interdisciplinary science is growing, many still see social science as the outsider and remain outside ‘proper’ science.



Grant Giving: Global Funders to Focus on Interdisciplinarity

Rick Rylance states that there are often three arguments that are made in favor of interdisciplinary research; some modern problems are not open to just one single discipline, discoveries are more likely to be on the boundaries of different fields, and encounters with other fields benefits single disciplines. But there are also arguments against interdisciplinary work. Some fear that it will drain funds, time, and energy. Interdisciplinary research struggles for importance as a result of things such as being harder for peer review. This article explains how interdisciplinary research that revolves around closer disciplines is much more common and easier to develop.



Interdisciplinarity: Inside Manchester's 'Arts Lab'

Peter Pormann argues that interdisciplinary work is very helpful and is growing at the University of Manchester, UK. Peter gives examples that supports interdisciplinary work such as Steve Jobs and how he combined liberal arts and technology. Peter then begins to talk about the funding that is going on at the university and how it is expanding and helping work and research that is occruring. He then supports this by giving more examples. This article further supports interdisciplinary work and its advantages.

Unit 2 Mid-Post

“Troubled Waters.” Nature 480.7376 2011: 151–152. Web. 22 Sept. 2015

The article discusses the wide range of issues concerning the waters of the Earth and concludes that protection of is necessary. The author of the articles lists some of the proprietary factors of the issue such as overfishing, pollution, and climate change. One effective method of protecting the waters is to create safe havens known as MPAs that help preserve the marine environment. However, while the author does argue for the implementation of MPAs, they also acknowledge that merely declaring for it is meaningless without action and resources.


“Message in a Bottle.” Nature Geoscience 6 2013: 241. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.

This article is about the accumulation of waste on coastal regions and rivers of the globe. The author goes into detail of instances when trash from the shores reach remote areas of the oceans over time. Although, some of the debris may be from ships traveling along shipping routes that may have thrown equipment overboard. The author does notify that disposing of waste into the oceans is banned, but acknowledges the fact that there are still traces of trash being introduced into the marine ecosystem.


“Strife on the Seven Seas.” Nature 448 2007: 623. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.

This article discusses the large number of resources from the oceans but admits that it is finite at the same time. The author discusses that nations have set up frameworks that settle disputes between resources called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This law also prohibits piracy and includes environment safeguards that protect the sea against overfishing and pollution. The author does note that due to the nature of this treaty, its range over what it covers is expandable as new issues occur.


Giosan, Liviu et al. “Climate Change: Protect the World’s Deltas.” Nature Dec. 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.

The article provides insight on bodies of water known as deltas and the threats to them that may lead to their destruction. Sediment erosion and flooding are a few of the issues caused by rising seas and climate change. The authors detail that as some deltas are being exacerbated by human activities, the marshes begin to falter, vegetation dies, and stops soil formation. Thus, the authors argue that due to climate change, there are shifts in the land and waters that either expand or minimizes one or the other.


Gilbert, Natasha. “Europe Sounds Alarm over Freshwater Pollution.” Nature Mar. 2015. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.

The article talks about the rising pollution in European rivers from agriculture and urbanization. The author points out that the increase of algae in the rivers may be toxic to the fish and eventually may kill them. She also discusses that there are large quantities of untreated water and waste in the rivers. The author then states that the amount of pollution in these European rivers will increase as climate change and population growth.

You can check out all of the articles by clicking on their citations.

How Gene Therapy Can Change the Medical World

Photo credits:© uwimages - Fotolia.com

A splice of life
Researches have discovered a way to edit the the germ line of human embryos in a predictable manner. This is important because scientists can prevent babies from suffering from genetic diseases they have inherited from their parents. The main question for this is where does this stop? Will scientists be creating super humans with this technology? This research, as pointed out in the article is very important and can help save the lives of future generations. Those who oppose this, however, will use this exaggerated potential to support their claim.


Oral Diseases

Gene therapy has been tested in the oral tissue of animals and has been mostly successful. Gene therapy is not going to be a huge field for at least the next ten years, but people need to take note of its effectiveness for the future. Gene therapy should be supported because of how rigorously it is tested before it is allowed to be applied to humans. If it is not completely successful, then it never passes on to human use. For animals’ gene therapy has been used successfully to eliminate problems in the salivary glands, teeth, and bones.


Gene Therapy Applied to Cornea Transplants

Cornea Transplants are one of the most common transplants and can be made more efficient with the help of gene therapy. Sometimes people receiving the transplant are at risk of their body rejecting the transplant. With the help of gene therapy, the doctors can personalize a transplant so that the patients’ body will not reject it. The author of this article supports further development of gene therapy because it could significantly increase the safety of patients as well as success rates.


Gene Therapy applied to HIV Treatment

Lifetime treatment of HIV needs a replacement; Gene therapy modify the immune system to fight HIV giving humans a permanent cure. Gene therapy is the evolution of medicine. Through it we can eliminate even the worst diseases. The only downsides of gene therapy are that it cannot restore damage already done to the body. If it is treated soon enough however that would not be a problem. This article supports the further development of gene therapy to be applied to different medical fields. 


The Development of Gene Therapy
Gene therapy has been slow to develop because of its potential to eliminate much of the drug industry. Big medicine manufacturers aren’t going to invest in a program that could potentially put them out of business. They also face many more obstacles to jump through. This article supports the development of gene therapy, but explains why it lacks funding that other medial fields receive.

Citing sources

Our group thinks that citing sources is important because the reader has a better experience when they know exactly what you’re referencing. If the reader wanted to go into even more detail, they could read through the entire article we are getting our information from. Also it easier to hold something credible when it comes from a reliable source.



The main form of citation on our blog will be hyperlinks. They will be used by hyperlinking certain key words throughout our blog that will lead exactly to the source we are discussing. We chose this because of the way blogs are formatted. A hyperlink seems the most appropriate for a blog. Blogs are read on a computer and therefore there should never be any problem opening the link. If you have access to the blog you should also be able to access the website that the hyperlink leads to.

Analysis of Soccerreviewsforyou.com

Joshua Vujovic is the author of the famous blog site Soccerreviewsforyou.com. It started when he began making YouTube videos about reviews on soccer cleats. At first, his videos were very boring and he always sounded very nervous, but as time, went by his videos began to change; the graphics were becoming better, videos were being uploaded more frequently and Joshua was sounding more confident. 

Joshua's Youtube channel is quite popular

Eventually his YouTube videos became very popular, and he expanded from just soccer cleat reviews to videos related to any type of soccer equipment. At this point in time he created his now famous blog site Soccerreviewsforyou.com, where his blogs have always been the same in that they are always very in-depth and unbiased.

The purpose of his blog site is to give his readers in-depth reviews on the latest soccer gear. This has become his main job and the reason his blog site is so popular is that he does all the latest soccer gear, even the take down or cheaper models of cleats, which gives those with a smaller budget the information to discern which cleats are better or more preferable. Joshua also responds to all comments made on his blog site, answering all questions thoroughly and making sure that the reader has a legitimate and reliable answer. Not only does Joshua review popular brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma, but he also reviews smaller or less popular brands such as Umbro, Pantofola D’Oro, and New Balance.

Joshua has always been very unbiased and fair to all brands and models and will compare them to other, similar types in his reviews. For example, in his “Asics DS Light X-Fly K Review” blog he talks about how the leatther on this particular pair of cleats is very high quality and better than popular cleats such as the Adidas F50 adizero miCoach 2 and Puma evoSPEED 1 k. Though Asics is not a very unpopular brand amonst the soccer community, Joshua still remains unbiased and wrote a detailed review about it. This blog is actually one of his longer and more detailed blogs.

In addition to being unbiased, Joshua gives great depth about soccer cleats in his blogs. One example would be the “Nike Magista Obra Review.” In this blog Joshua goes into detail on many aspect of the cleats such as the materials used in making the cleats, what types of studs are used on the bottom of the cleats, how the lacing of the cleats are centralized, and even explains what the upper material, FlyKnit, is. Joshua then talks about how the FlyKnit provides softness and strechabilty, making the cleats very comfortable and easy to break into. Not only does he do a review about the outer part of the cleats, but he also talks about the inner portions of the shoe such as the insole and thickness of the cleats.

Joshua always follows the same format in his blogs where he breaks down the cleats into sections: Comfort/fit, weight, traction, touch, shooting, protection, and durability. After breaking down the cleats into sections, Joshua will go into more detail on each section. For example, Joshua might say that for a particular pair of cleats the durability is very low and then he would go into more detail about how durability is a key topic when choosing cleats and how taking care of them will determine if cleats would last only for a season or for a full year.

Many brands will put their soccer cleats into categories such as speed, control, power, or touch. Joshua uses this to his advantage by comparing cleats that are based in the same category or will compare the cleats to an older model. For instance, in his “Nike Tiempo Legend V Review,” Joshua compared the Nike Tiempo Legend V to the older Nike Tiempo Legend IV, where he elaborates on how the upper material of the Legend V is made entirely of kangaroo leather while the Legend IV wasn’t and that there were only minor changes to the stud pattern. Not only did he compare the Legend V to the Legend IV but Joshua also compared them to the Nike Hypervenom Phantom, where he discusses the impact of differing shoe materials on how the cleat fits. According to his blog, both cleats have implemented the X1.1 last base shape, they still both fit very differently with the Hypervenom being made of a synthetic material, making it more stiff, while the Legend V are made of kangaroo leather, allowing the cleats to stretch and form to the shape of his foot.

Soccerreviewsforyou.com is a very well made and formatted blog site, which makes it user friendly and more aesthetically pleasing to viewers. In all his  logs

Soccerreviewsforyou.com's main page

Joshua includes his videos from YouTube on the page while also providing very well taken photos of the product from all angles, allowing his audience to get a more thorough view of the cleats. Also, he provides links to trusted online soccer retail stores, where viewers can buy the cleats. Since he is sponsored by many of the online stores such as Soccer.com, Worldsoccershop.com, and Soccerloco.com, he is able to give viewers discount codes. This alleviates some financial strains on his audience, because certain cleats can exceed two hundred dollars. Soccerreviewsforyou.com also has very few of those annoying ads, relieving readers of the stress of seeing ads and popups everywhere.

Overall Soccerreviewsforyou.com is a very well written blog site and is probably the best for this certain topic. Joshua gives very in-depth, unbiased, and precise blogs while making it very clear and easy to understand for readers. Joshua’s usage of these rhetorical tools makes his blogs very informative and popular amongst the soccer community.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Car and Driver Magazine

Screen shot of Car and Driver Home page

The authors try to present themselves in a very educated fashion for this particular blog. They present all the information that they know. It is very easy to see that the author knows the ins and outs of the car that they are writing about. You can infer the author knows about the past of particular models as well because they talk about the past and compare and contrast the changes that have been made. The author however does not want to have his name being a big part of his articles. Some other blogs might have a rather large section of the screen devoted to just the author and feature links to their social media pages and perhaps even a picture of them. This blog just lists the author's name. When you click on their name it will take you to other articles that are written by the same person, but that’s as much as you can learn about the author. This is done most likely because of the nature of the blog. The writer is writing the article so that he can provide facts and analysis on a certain car. Blogs that focus more on authors personal opinions would probably be more likely to promote their authors because those blogs aren’t selling the content as much as they are selling the author's personality and flashy opinions. This blog is straightforward and it is presented in a way that best suites the audience looking for that type of blog.

The target audience of this blog are mostly people interested in the car industry and potential car buyers. Reading this blog will provide you with unbiased information about the newest models of cars. A potential buyer of this car would definitely want to read this article before going to look into actually making a purchase. Having the background of someone who test drove the car and knows its ins and outs can be crucial while at a dealership. When talking to a car salesman about the newest model of a car he could give you a completely different set of information than the blog you read online. This blog serves as a safety net for consumers. Car and driver is a good source for the portion of the audience who are just wanting to keep up with the car industry because of how up to date and factual it is. The top article currently on Car and Driver is about the 2017 Porsche Carrera. That car doesn’t even come out for another year. This article will give you information about a car that won’t be advertised for another 8 months. Given it is free advertising for the car company, it is still very interesting to read because it isn’t written by the car company. The article being written by a third party source makes it more reliable. If you were to go a dealership and ask about the 2017 Porsche Carrera they would tell you about how much better is in than the past or previous models. They wouldn’t dare say anything negative about the car. The article on Car and Driver would tell you if the newest model was actually a step backwards.

This blog contains many key features that increase the experience of the reader. Some of these include the bold titles telling when the article will change gears and the pictures that accompany the text. Giving straightforward information and not giving a slant on it is what Car and Driver is known for. It is what makes them who they are. If a consumer wants an in-depth honest evaluation of a car, then they should look into Car and Driver. The information car and driver's offers isn’t only in the form of writing. They also give pictures to help readers understand what they are talking about. A good example of this would be this article of the new 7 series from BMW. The article talks about how the new frame is supported with carbon fiber, and then he adds a picture of the frame stripped down to more accurately describe what he is talking about. The article also includes bolded titles throughout the article to tell when it is going to talk about a different aspect of a car. The article about the BMW has “She Blinded Me with Luxury” bolded. This marks the beginning of the portion of the article where the author talks about the new luxury features of the 7 series. These are very useful for the readers. If a reader doesn’t want to read the entire article and would rather just skim through it quickly he can look at just the bolded titles. If he finds one that interests him

Screen shot of BMW article mentioned

then he can just read what is below that one. This saves time for the reader as well as increasing the reader's experience. I personally used them while analyzing the article. I lost my place while switching between tabs and used the sub heading to quickly find where I was before losing my place. Another feature of this blog is the side bars that are included in every single article. These are there to provide the reader with more information than what is only in the article. The articles never directly mention the side bar, but they always have information that is relevant to the article. In the BMW 7 series article the sidebar lists the MSRP of the specific car they test drove, the rank of mid size luxury sedans and where the 7 series falls in that ranking, and all of the specs of the 7 series. This information can change depending on the specific article but it is always relevant and complementary.


The authors of Car and Driver meet the intellectual standards of clarity, accuracy, precision, depth, and fairness. All of the articles on this blog are fairly short and simple. They don’t try to mislead or confuse the readers. Nobody will read one of these articles and come away not understanding what the author was trying to say. All of the articles I have read have been accurate. I haven’t noticed any mistakes with spelling or formatting that would make an article hard to understand. All articles I have read have also been very precise, especially the BMW article. It points out very specific facts and details that you wouldn’t get from most sources. They even give you the little facts that you wouldn’t ever think of. The article goes into depth when it talks about how all the new 7 series have a longer wheelbase in America instead of the shorter wheel base models sold overseas. This makes the American models have a longer back seat. Even though the change in wheel base is only a little over one inch it has a huge impact on the car. It allows for a substantial amount legroom to be added and for the front passenger seat to be able to fold forward and give a full foot rest to the person in the back seat. The final intellectual standard that this article accomplishes is fairness. Car and Driver gives a fair evaluation of all cars it reviews. This is very important because the mindset of the car community has a large amount of preconceived opinions. Appealing to all members of the car community is very important to keep the blog alive. If Car and Driver was only geared towards BMW fans, then the blog would have a smaller amount of visitors. Overall Car and Driver is a reliable article that meets a great amount of intellectual standards.

Rhetorical Analysis - emptykingdom.com

Empty Kingdom is a blog dedicated to sharing art to the world by connecting, promoting, and educating people with their programs, partnerships, and volunteers. This blog has several authors who each post articles full of artwork from creators they want to express to their viewers. However, in their statement about what their blog is about, they state that the purpose of their blog is to go beyond mere self-expression. This means that they want to inspire people with art that they may not discover on their own and develop appreciation and experience in their lifetime. Due to the large number of writers this blog has, each one has a unique writing style and the length of text on each article can vary depending on these individuals. For instance, while most of the articles feature many works from the artist they are covering, the amount of text may be different between authors. There are some who choose to write a couple sentences regarding the art style of a creator, others make an in-depth analysis of the artwork or conduct an interview with the actual artist. With this amount of freedom, the authors can all express their individuality and knowledge in their posts, thus maintaining originality and relevance in their critique of the artworks.

Photo captured by South Korean photographer, LINNNN - courtesy of emptykingdom.com

I suppose it goes without saying that Empty Kingdom’s target audience is people who already have an affinity to art or would like to further immerse themselves in the world of art. Since the posts on this blog is mainly of art, the audience can go straight for anything that they are interested at. As mentioned, the writing aspect of Empty Kingdom fluctuates among its authors and can either make it or break it for the user. If there is a viewer who wants to read about another person’s perspective on an artist or artwork that they find appealing, but finds that the author only gives a sentence or two worth of insight, it would not be as interactive as it would be compared to one that has paragraphs of analysis. Although, that does not mean that some authors cannot convey why they make a post. There can be a post that explicitly says why the author likes this artwork. The text made by the authors can just express how they feel about a certain piece and ask the audience to see it from another angle and understand their own perspective. Then there are some posts that are written in a manner that entices artists of all kinds of skills. With articles that dive into the featured artist and artwork, the audience can learn more about art from a more technical standpoint. These kinds of entries can include information that range from the background of an artist to how the style of the actual piece is created. Additionally, earlier in this post I mentioned that some posts on Empty Kingdom have interviews from the artists they were featuring. This is another method which the audience can learn about art, as well as read the thoughts from a professional that aspiring creators may be questioning to themselves about the world of art as a whole. Having a wide range of posts with varying lengths of text allows the audience to choose what kind of article they would enjoy reading or, in the case when an article does not have much substance, enjoy the creations of artists from all over the world.

Empty Kingdom does a great job with meeting most of the intellectual standards, however there are some they lack on due to the nature of their blog. At the end of the day, the authors write in a manner that expresses their own viewpoint on a piece of art or artists. This makes the blog posts lose its breadth because it focuses on the article from a technical stance and the writer’s opinion. Since the text written by the authors does not provide any need for a counter argument or questioning regarding the work of art, it does not receive insight from another outlook. However, the blog also provides it readers a commentary section within the article which would allow interaction and the sharing of ideals behind an artwork. That being said, it point of the articles is to share perspectives with other people, but that does not require the audience to respond if they just want to enjoy the creations. Additionally, this leads into the absence of adaptability. With no presence of opposition, Empty Kingdom does not step out of its comfort zone and confront with anything taken out of context. Regardless of losing these two characteristics, that is not necessarily a negative toward the website. With no breadth and adaptability, it gives Empty Kingdom a measure of how successful it is. Having articles that are respected and comprehended lead the authors of them to concur that their insight is acknowledged by its readers. It also means that the blog is fulfilling its purpose of sharing and educating art to the world by letting their audience read of their perceptions of art and then inviting them to express how they feel about it as well.

Overall, Empty Kingdom is a solid blog that sticks to the broad topic of art. It provides a wide range of mediums that are welcomed to the art world from illustrations to photography to film and many others. This blog also has easy navigation that allows its users to browse through the website with ease. Combined with the simplicity of the blog’s posts, these two attributes gives the audience an understandable outlook of the art that is presented to them and the explanation that the authors write in order to educate their readers on the work in question. Although this blog fails to bring a strong presence of breadth and adaptability, the clarity of Empty Kingdom in addition to the intellectual standards it does possess make it a successful blog that is able to retain credibility to the theme of the website.

Rhetorical Analysis of SBNation.com

The author's’ purpose for writing the blog, SB Nation, is to give the audience a daily, in depth look into the broad world of sports in the United States of America. SB Nation is one of the top sports blogs in North America, writing stories on breaking news and recaps of the weekend’s big games, as well as having smaller blogs for individual sports teams (for example, the blog for the North Carolina State Wolfpack is “Backing The Pack”). According to SBNation.com, “ SB Nation provides the highest-quality coverage, commentary, and community during the season, in the offseason, on gameday, and beyond —which is why our partners see industry-leading performance year-round. Our team-specific coverage is enhanced by experiential pieces showcasing the sights, sounds, tastes, and traditions that touch every modern sports fan's life, as well as the cultural implications that go beyond the field.” The blog uses interviews, videos, social media, and articles to convey its information to the audience. SB Nation is key source for any avid sports fan.

So who reads SB Nation? According to a study SB Nation conducted, 80.2 million people read the blog, 71% of the readers being male. The majority of males that read the blog are between the ages of 18-34. Readers of SB Nation are 2 times more likely to be a sports fan or sports enthusiast. One way SB Nation separates itself from other sports blogs is how well it interacts with its audience. Each day, SB Nation receives an average of 91,000 comments on their blogs. This blog also makes it easy for their audience to read stories and get up to date information on sports through their mobile app and social media pages. In fact, 62% of the total minutes the audience spent reading SB Nation was on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. The blog’s Twitter page has 2,217,437 followers, which posts breaking news and links to headline stories.

Why do so many people read and trust SB Nation? As for reading, the site is visually attractive to anyone. The blog has a unique logo, which consists of the title in large, bold font beside a large, red star. Most headline articles have visual aids such as videos or photographs related to the topic. Another reason so many people read this blog is the fact that they have a blog for any type of sports fan. SB Nation consists of 307 blogs, including a blog for every professional football team, baseball team, hockey team, basketball team, soccer team, most division one collegiate teams, golf, stock car racing, cycling, wrestling, and even running. Readers trust information from SB Nation because of the group of authors’ vast knowledge for sports.

An example of a typical article posted by SB Nation is a preview story on an North Carolina State football fans. The author, Akula Wolf, states his opinion clearly that Eastern Kentucky is a second class team that does not stand a chance against the Wolfpack. Like most articles in SB Nation, it is not long. This fits the modernized idea of SB Nation. It is a quick read and gives information to the reader in a timely manner, so he can move on to something else.

Another example of a typical article posted by SB Nation is an editorial on a specific sport. For instance, SB Nation posted a headline story about potential changes to college football in the future, 3 Pretty Easy ways To Make College Football Better. This editorial, by Faux Pelini, describes what the author thinks should be done to make college football even more fun. Unlike the last example, this article covers all demographics of the audience. Headline stories like this one are used to capture the reader’s attention as soon as they open the blog up. An article that asks “what if?”, like this one, is a great way to get the audience involved in the article. This article speaks to readers about the future their favorite sport.

It is articles like the 2 above from SB Nation that make them so attractive to sports fan. This blog gives fans, of almost any sport, an in depth look at the sports they love. From college football to professional wrestling, there are articles for any fan.

Click here to visit site: http://www.sbnation.com/

Mid-Unit 1 Post

http://www.sbnation.com/

Rhetorical analysis examines the interactions between a text, an author, and an audience. It explains how or what an author uses texts, whether it be articles, graphics, or videos, to persuade the audience. This type of analysis involves higher level thinking and requires the reader, as well as the analyst, to think outside the box. Instead of just reading an article on a blog like most people do, we must read the blog and analyze who the author is communicating to. Rhetorical analysis is all about interactions between the author, text, and the audience, as seen in Figure 1. When doing a rhetorical analysis of a blog, one must understand the intellectual standards of critical and creative thinking, especially significance and clarity. These two standards are key to a rhetorical analysis of the blog I am analyzing, SB Nation.

I have already put together some background information on SB Nation that will help me write my Unit 1 Project Post. This background information includes analysis of the graphics, the demographics of the target audience, and the types of articles the blog posts. This information is good start for my project and is the main points of the rhetorical analysis. I hope to find out more about the demographics of the audience and the reasons why the blog posts different articles as I complete this project.

Unit 1 Mid-Post!!!

http://www.emptykingdom.com/

Hey!  The first post that I’ll be posting up is a rhetorical analysis of an artist blog called Empty Kingdom.  If you’re not sure about what that is, it means that I’ll be breaking down the website and try to pinpoint as to why the authors of that blog made it that way.  That entails of how the author writes on their blog, why they are writing for, and who are they writing to.  Of course, this would also include the knowledge the authors have toward the topic their blog is based on.  It is necessary for the authors to have relevance on art and the artists they cover in their articles.  Additionally, depth is needed in order for the author to elaborate on the article they are covering and show he/her point of view.

I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that I already have some knowledge on art and a general understanding on how other artists may work.  I started getting into art when I was in middle school and from then on I had more opportunities to flourish skills and knowledge from other creators.  From this project, I hope to discover what the kind of audience the authors are trying to capture.  I want to see if they are trying to address people who are are like me and already have skills in the arts or people who follow the blog or a particular artist.  Also, I want to see if the writers have their own respective personalities in how they write and if they give any interaction with their viewers.  

Preview of my Unit 1 Project

Rhetorical analysis is a big is very important when it comes to finding out what the blog is about and determining whether it is a good blog or not.  A rhetorical analysis is an essay that breaks down any non-fiction work into parts and explains how the parts go together to make the writing.  For my first big post in this blog I will be doing a rhetorical analysis on a blog site that I have chosen.  This post will give you, the reader(s), and inside look on the blog site and I will be pointing out rhetorical devices that are used in the blog.

The blogsite I will be analyzing is Soccerreviewsforyou.com.  This blog site is owned by the author, Joshua Vujovic, where he gives reviews on all soccer equipment.  His blogs are always well written which makes it very easy to analyze his blog site.  For example, his blogs always go into great depth as he'll explain all parts of the product, or products, that he is testing and how they are made while also explaining why the products are made the way they are.  Also, he is very unbiased in his reviews and will even do smaller brands such as basics, mizzen, and umbro.

It is very easy to analyze this blog site for me because I myself am a fan of soccer cleats and used to watch this and other blog sites about cleats.  By composing this analysis I am hoping to find out more about his website as well as being able to analyze sites more thoroughly.  I also hope to find out more about key things like how the tone or formatting can affect how people judge or look at his blogs.  Overall I hope thus blog makes me a better analyzer.

Robbie Mid-Unit Post

http://blogs.motortrend.com

For this blog I will be analyzing how the author uses rhetorical devices. Some of the things I will examine will be layout, word choice, structure, and tone. All of this will be done so that I can understand how a writer influences his readers. Everybody has their own opinion and I would like to know how the writer formed their slant on a subject. I want to know why one website uses more pictures than the other, or why one website has readers click through a slide show to view parts of an article. I enjoy when authors are very precise and go into depth about a certain topic, that is something I hope to accomplish with my own personal writing.


My background history for the information on this blog is basically that I know a decent amount about cars just from my family. My relatives are mostly motor heads. They are the ones who made cars interesting to me. They also taught me what they know about the mechanics of cars because they told me it would be useful one day. As I compose my unit one project I want to learn more about the topic I choose. Learning is what makes this interesting for me. I just want to know more about a topic than I did before I started.

My name is Hannah Brannan and I am nineteen years old. I am currently a freshman at North Carolina State University. I have not declared my major , but I know it will be in the business or parks and recreation field. Growing up in the small town of Wendell, North Carolina was special. I loved living in a small town, where everyone knows everyone. Animals have always been a huge passion of mine. I have a cat and a dog that I recently rescued. Now that I have introduced a little bit about myself, this semester will be blogging about various topics in my english 101 class.  I will be blogging about art, science, or anything that is recent or trending in the world today. As for the tone of my blogs, they will differ based on the topic of the article I am writing. My post will include as much positivity and happy thinking as it can, because that is how I best describe myself.

My Intro Assignment; Brendon Ngo

Hi my name is Brendon Ngo and I’m a freshman who attends NC State University and graduated from Wakefield High School in the class of 2015. At Wakefield High School, I was part of National Achievers Society, Science Honors Society, and Math Honors Society. With most of my spare time, I like to play soccer and have been since I was eight years old. Through soccer I have made many top teams such as CASL Elite Black, TFCA Alliance, ODP North Carolina, and Wakefield’s varsity soccer team. For Wakefield, I have been a starter for the varsity soccer team since I was a sophomore and was captain for my junior and senior year. For this year I will be posting many blogs for my English 101 class about various subjects such as art, science, sports,and literature while also writing about recent news that is going on in the world. Even though my blogs will give factual information it will also be well opinionated. That being said, I will try and be fair with my opinions and I will give my reasons for my opinions. The tone of my blogs will be more of a serious tone while there will also be some with a more joking tone. Throughout my life English has always been a subject that I struggled with but I will try my best to write my blogs.

Bio: Alex Nguyen

Hey! My name is Alex Nguyen and I am a Textiles Technology major here at NCSU.  A little about myself is that I am from Hickory, North Carolina and that I’ve lived there my entire life.  I swim competitively and have been for about 8 years now. Some of my other hobbies are creating a variety of art, eating, and looking at things online.  During my senior year, I made some contributing actions to my community both in school and outside.  I was in BETA Club and I helped out people running several events and I have helped make others happy by doing stuff like carrying some things when they have too much.  As for my general experience in English courses, I’d say that I’m decent.  Things like writing papers and worksheets are some of what I’ve done in the past, but writing a blog is a first.  I mean, it’s not like it's intimidating, more like it's new and different than the norm.  Being as creative as I am, I don’t mind it and welcome the idea as another way to make content.  That being said, the blogs I will be posting will be all about things in life that make people happy.  Such things may include activities that benefit yourself or others, intriguing pieces of creativity, and things that I’ll put my own perspective on.  As for the tone of my blogs, it will fluctuate depending on the topic I’m writing about.  I want to put passion and my personality into my blogs so that while we are talking about a certain topic, the readers can get a sense of myself in those words.  In a way, that’ll let them understand my perspective and why I react to it.  

   Hello! My name is Robert Luther, but you can call just call me Robbie. I was born and raised in the mountains of western North Carolina. Being raised in the the mountains influenced my stance on things such as land conservation and environmental protection. I’ve explored places like Hawaii, Alaska, and Colorado and can appreciate the way they are preserved so why not do the same here? During high school I was part of many clubs like Key Club, Spanish Club, and Leadership. These different activities helped me shape my character into what it is today. Some things i enjoy in my free time are hiking, fly fishing, traveling, and really just hanging out with my closest friends. Currently I am a full time student at North Carolina State University and am looking at majors in the Business or Engineering field. My blogs for English 101 will be from a variety of topics such as trending technology news to my own personal spin on current events and even some land conservation/preservation news. I think it’s important to give the information on an article, but the information alone can get boring. Some articles will be more opinionated than others. The tone of my articles will range from serious on things that I believe in firmly, like conservation, to less serious and more relaxed on things like current events. who knows? Maybe I’ll poke some fun at the Kardashians? We know we all love to.

Olin Austin: Biography

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog for English 101. My name is Olin Austin and I am a freshman at North Carolina State University studying agribusiness management. I graduated from Union Academy High School this past June, where I was senior class president, Junior Civitan club president, and captain of the varsity football and swimming team.Through academics and athletics, I have established many leadership skills that will benefit me throughout my life. After college, I plan to return home and inherit the family business. I am avid football fan, as well as a conservation minded hunter. After college, I plan to return home and inherit the family business. I like to call my style of blogging “factual editorials”. Factual editorials are articles that state facts, but have my opinion woven into to it. Throughout this year, I will be posting blogs about various subjects such as art, science, sports, literature, and breaking news throughout the world. Enjoy!