AP Language and Composition 1: Blessings Abound

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Blessings Abound

Well,
Next week is Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for all of you. Thank you for trusting me, for working hard, for praying with me and for being young and energetic and curious! Here is a great, great article about being grateful. What is the author's argument? And HOW does he convince us that he is right? This is another way of saying that you must do a rhetorical analysis of this article. It really is fantastic. In the comments, please post under at least 5 classmates names what you appreciate about him or her. And comment on two of your classmates rhetorical analysis as well!

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/opinion/sunday/choose-to-be-grateful-it-will-make-you-happier.html

I love you all very much and will be thanking God for each and every one of you by name. I am excited to spend the advent season with all of you upon our return!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Messineo

102 comments:

Sophia FragaleNovember 24, 2019 at 1:41 AM
Life will never be free from obstacles. It is our responsibility to accept what is given to us, regardless if it is good or bad, and feel grateful for the life we are living. In the article written by Arthur Brooks, he explains why he feels a person should live their life with gratitude and supports his ideas will factual evidence.
Arthur starts his article by telling the story of how he decided to cook a Thanksgiving meal for his wife’s family in Barcelona. The idea was very confusing to them and many questioned the meaning of the holiday. By beginning with a story about his family, the reader is able to learn something personal about the author. Also by following this question that the family had, Arthur is able to introduce the topic of why people should choose to be grateful even if their life is not going according to plan.
After the topic is introduced, Arthur starts to support his claim that acting grateful, even if the person is not, will help them to become grateful. When each point is introduced at the beginning of the paragraph, it is always followed by evidence from a credible source. When that is shown to the reader the authority of the author grows stronger and stronger. Emotion is also a factor in many of the supporting points. Arthur Brooks states that we must choose to be grateful even with it is difficult. Life can be full of bad things, but if we choose not to always focus on them then we can be happy. Also if people are able to choose happiness, it will positively affect the people around us. The author is able to support that with his own story about a person who did not agree with a book he had published. The person sent an email about how they disagreed with the book and instead of Arthur focusing on how negative it was, he expressed his gratitude for the person reading the book.
This article is a very honest explanation about why someone should choose to be grateful. The author does a great job connecting with the audience through his own personal experiences and he explains the benefits of being grateful.
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John TettisNovember 24, 2019 at 9:41 AM
Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful and give thanks for what we have. Although many people think that gratitude should be from a place of total authenticity, but Arthur Brooks disagrees. In Arthur's opinion piece, Choose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier, he uses a light hearted, almost comedic tone to draw his audience in, and backs his argument up with solid facts to drive his point home: choose to be happy, even if you aren't, and it will happen.
Arthur sustains a light-hearted tine through the article, talking directly to his audience. He makes jokes here and there, even poking at his own argumentative, "If grinning for an uncomfortably long time like a scary lunatic isn’t your cup of tea, try expressing gratitude instead." Brooks knows that facts alone aren't going to change anyone's stance, so he reverts to making friends while he proves his points.
Brooks gives multiple examples for his argument in his opinion piece. He quoted a genetics study, multiple behavioral studies, and a neurological study. Saying something as strange as fake happiness until you're happy isn't going to cut it, and Arthur knows this. He gives his audience plenty of research to back his claim. His Logos argument may be the strongest of all in this piece.
Arthur Brooks wrote a fantastic opinion piece on the nature of Thanksgiving, gratitude, and happiness. He explains to his audience the true point if it all, by using a friendly tone and straight facts. Brooks delivers to his audience the key to happiness, if it doesn't quite make sense at first. Just pretend it does, until it does
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John TettisNovember 24, 2019 at 9:41 AM
This comment has been removed by the author.
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 12:20 PM
Fake it til you make it. The age old saying that everyone knows by heart might apply to more than one may think. Surprisingly enough, it applies to gratitude of all things. Author, Arthur C. Brooks tells of this idea through personal accounts of Thanksgiving past. He tells of his opinion through comedic, light hearted examples and stories. But make no mistake, Brooks is sure to back up these opinions with well studied facts. This makes for both an entertaining and informative read.
To begin, Brooks opens by telling the audience about a Thanksgiving he celebrated with his Barcelonian in-laws. This was very much different from his usual holiday, as they were unaware of many American traditions surrounding Thanksgiving. He then makes the claim that acting grateful can, in turn, make one grateful. By opening with a personal account Brooks is able to ease the audience into his hands, only to later smack them with the thought provoking idea. Humor is also not lost in this piece. By pulling off witty comments and jokes, Brooks is able to heighten his ethos. It adds yet another personable element to the claims.
Intelligently, Brooks includes counterclaims in his work. These questioning statements regarding his argument are met with evidence in reply. Yet again, he uses humor to push this idea further, take the “Pumpkin Pie Paradox” for example. His evidence used all throughout is from very credible sources, which helps an audience truly believe what they read. However, his placement of said evidence is also very smart. After each claim, Brooks includes one sources research to back it up. By doing this, he avoids any confusion or disbelief from his readers.
Overall, Arthur C. Brooks piece is an extremely well written work. He successfully argues his opinion in a subtle and artistic way. Brooks strongly establishes his ethos, pathos and logos in an effective way. He was able to prove to the audience that making up gratitude, even if people don’t truly feel grateful, can turn into true gratitude over time. This, in turn, can make one much happier. So why wait? Express gratitude this thanksgiving, whether it’s from the heart or not. It might just benefit in the long run.
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 12:23 PM
In most American homes during the Thanksgiving season, families speak on the ideas and big parts of their life they are thankful for; family, friends, a roof over their head. However, Arthur C. Brooks column discusses the idea that some countries and families in America don’t come with the internal mindset to feel graceful for these parts of their life. Arthur forms a piece that effectively shows how to feel grateful for even the small and mundane things by using storytelling, reaserched facts, and tone.
To start the piece off, Arthur tells a comical story to set up a path for him to prove his points later in the article. The story tells of a time where he ineffectivly tried to throw a thanksgiving dinner. The dinner was a fluke and the attendees didn’t understand the concept of being grafteful. How does one say thanks for the things they don’t feels authentically grateful for? The tone he used in this story was layed back and comedic, which added a relatable feel to the reader and makes them want to listen to the tips and opinions he is going to give on how to “act grateful until you become grateful”.
The majority of this article is set up with facts. He used many different research articles to prove his points. The articles ranged from why some people don’t feel grateful and then on how to fix this issue. One of the most convincing fact based arguments he made in the piece was from a 2011 study. The study proved that even when a person is angry and does not feel grateful for something, they should feign their anger and be thankful instead.
Throughout this whole column, Brooks went back in forth between a easy going tone and fact based eveidence. Jumping between these two different point of views allowed the reader to feel unpressured to listen to the authors suggestions. Overall, Brooks idea on faking thankfulness until you achieve it was well supported and offered an interesting outlook on the Thanksgiving holiday.
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 1:39 PM
“If you want a truly happy holiday, choose to keep the ‘thanks’ in Thanksgiving, whether you feel like it or not.” This line pretty quickly sums up Arthur C. Brooks’s goal in his article “Choose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier.” Throughout this article, he uses narrative, the topic of testimony, and humor to convince his readers that acting happy can actually make them happier. By the end of his article, there is no question that being thankful is the way to go for a truly happy holiday.
Right away, Brooks starts out with a narrative story about his attempt at Thanksgiving in Barcelona and how it set the stage for him to write this article. Not only is the story a great way to introduce the topic, but it gets the audience’s attention and draws them in. Even Aristotle agrees that storytelling is one of the most effective forms of exordium. Stories are also effective because of their appeal to pathos. On one hand, ethos is usually best for beginning an argument; however pathos is more effective at getting reader’s attention.
Throughout the article, Brooks’s most important tool is his use of Aristotle’s fifth topic of invention: testimony. He uses this in a few different ways, but the biggest one is his references to scientific research and studies. These studies prove ideas such as the existence of a gratitude gene, that smiling makes you happier, and that being kind makes others want to be kind back, all of which help support his central claim. He also uses testimony to reference a quote by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Testimony is very useful because it appeals two two of Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals: logos and ethos. All of the topics of invention use logic to prove something and therefore appeal to logos. However, it also appeals to ethos because Brooks calls on various sources which are much more credible than he is, and this makes his entire argument seem more credible.
In addition to his strong argument, Brooks sprinkles his article with some humor, specifically the kind that Aristotle calls wit. This humor kind of relaxes the mood of his argument, and it lets the audience relax as well. This is a great way to appeal to ethos because the friendly environment makes Brooks’s character seem more trustworthy. In addition, the whole idea of the friendly environment also appeals to pathos. Though simple, Brooks’s humor does a lot of good for his argument, and it really ties it all together.
Through his use of narrative, testimony, and wit, Arthur Brooks formulates a strong argument on how acting happy can actually make you happier. Though short, “Choose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier,” accomplishes its goal very quickly and efficiently, and it’s an impressive display of Brooks’s rhetorical skill.
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 2:19 PM
Zig Ziglar once said, “Be grateful for what you have and stop complaining - it bores everybody else, does you no good, and doesn't solve any problems.” Gratitude is so important, yet it is often overlooked. In his article, Arthur Brooks uses narrative, factual evidence, and tone to convince his audience that acting grateful is effective in actually making one grateful, and is a vital step to improve one’s quality of life.
Brooks starts his article in a simple, yet strategic way. By telling a story, he makes his words more personal, and easier for an audience to connect with. Also, he gives his readers an image to base the rest of his argument on, and gets them interested from the beginning. His mention of the questions his new family asked was a great way to transition his discussion from lighthearted to more deep and meaningful, without making anything too heavy.
Pointing out the studies, including the one about smiling making people happy was a second step to his successful argument. He made what could have just been a sappy, feel good, Thanksgiving themed piece of writing into something to pay attention to. Making the reader aware of the proven scientific data is what kept it from being wishy-washy, which is important. This part of the argument is where a reader would really start thinking that what he is suggesting might be a good idea, and keeps them intrigued for the remainder of the article.
Perhaps the most important factor in making this article so great was the tone. In some part of each paragraph, Brooks says something to make the reader smile, maybe even laugh. He makes sure his audience feels good while they are reading his work, in a sense, makes them grateful for good literature, for the truth behind his writing, for their sense of humor, for his writing. He could very well have held a tone of condemnation about how society is spiraling because everyone is so spoiled, how an inability to be grateful brings downfall. While this aligns with his argument, the way he went about it was far more wise. By using a tone that is attractive to the audience, he is able to share a very meaningful message in a relatively lighthearted way.
There is great power in the simple words “thank you.” With techniques including narrative, hard data, and tone, Arthur Brooks shared a compelling message supporting gratitude and the way one can obtain it. Everyone has something to be grateful for, and realizing, then acting upon that fact is a vital step toward finding happiness.
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 2:22 PM
In an opinion column titled “Choose To Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier.”, Arthur Brooks discusses Thanksgiving and what it means to be truly grateful. He argues that celebrating Thanksgiving should be centered around gratefulness, genuine or forced. He also explains that being grateful all the time, not just at Thanksgiving, will make people happier. To do this, Brooks uses personal experience, facts, and tone.
Arthur Brooks begins his piece by telling a story about his attempt to share American culture with his in-laws from Barcelona. He tried to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner on his own, which did not go very well. His in-laws also did not understand the concept of the holiday. They wanted to know if people could still partake in celebrating if they were not grateful. Brooks shares this as his reason for contemplating the holiday for many years and as inspiration for writing the column. This allows his audience to see into his mindset and helps them to understand why he is making his argument, which build up his ethos. Later on, he shares an experience involving an email exchange over one of his books. Brooks received an email from someone who was criticizing his book chapter by chapter. Rather than aggressively defending himself, he thanked the critic for taking the time to read his book and for reaching out to him. Brooks shares that the email exchanges following this became much more positive. He shares this story to provide his audience with a clear example of the benefits of gratitude. Both of these personal experiences are easy to relate to and help the audience to apply Brooks’s claims to their own lives.
All throughout his column, Brooks appeals to logic. He steadily refers to studies and reliable sources to support his claims. This greatly strengthens the logos of his argument. When he makes his claim that forcing gratefulness improves overall happiness, he has studied to prove it. This makes his argument easier to consider and accept.
Brooks also uses tone to solidify his argument. The light hearted, slightly comical tone of his piece makes the task at hand, forcing oneself to be more grateful, seem easy rather than a chore. One example of how he does this is including that being grateful might make you fat - because happiness makes you crave sweets.
Arthur Brooks’s use of personal experience, facts, and tone to create his argument proved to be effective. After reading his column, it is safe to say that his audience is feeling grateful already because they have been shown this simple way to become happier.
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 3:23 PM
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” This quote by William Arthur Ward connects perfectly with Arthur Brooks’ witty article about choosing to be grateful. Gratefulness, as a whole, is something that is often overlooked, or simply not taught, all over the world. It is the cornerstone of politeness and good manners, and even if you haven’t learned it, Brooks encourages pretending like you are. He writes this article effectively using comedic personal experiences, humorous tone, and presenting numerous facts.
Brooks begins his article with a fun story of an awkward Thanksgiving experience with his wife’s family. Preparing a meal for new in-laws would be scary enough. They are of a different culture and do not even eat turkey, let alone know about its significance. The beginning of this column has a funny storyline, but contains something that can teach others. Whether or not you understand something, always be grateful. If someone has prepared something and it seems bizarre, showing gratefulness is still needed.
Brooks maintains his comical tone, while still reinforcing a powerful message. He provides real evidence, like the CD38 gene, and the 1993 experiment, where people forced themselves to smile. Brooks shares even more examples to show that even if we do not feel grateful, there are real benefits to simply acting like we are. Take the scenario involving the man who emailed Brooks about his book and reamed him about each chapter. Instead of feeling bad about himself or thinking he did something wrong, Brooks embraced and expressed his gratitude to the man. He spun the situation around and felt grateful for the fact that the man took the time to read it. The man’s response back ended up being nice, so giving out gratitude to others can deliver a kind response in return.
In conclusion, Arthur Brooks’ column on gratefulness, or lack thereof, is great stepping stone into teaching others how effective being gratuitous is. Brooks’ tone throughout the article makes his message that much more important. Being grateful is an easy thing to do, an easy thing to fake, and pushes you in the direction of happiness, who doesn’t want that?
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 4:30 PM
The author, Arthur Brooks, sets out to argue for the need of thanks for one’s life, and all of the parts to life. He supports his argument by setting up his own background to credibility, using thorough and broad research, rebuttals a counter claim, and all around makes the audience trust his work with emotional play through clean syntax, using logic (logos), and a good deal of wit and humor.
Brooks begins his article by taking the audience back to his time when he catered a thanksgiving meal to his “Spanish-in-laws” and how the whole article was really brought up in the first place, does one celebrate thanksgiving if they are not thankful? This is his main argument, and does a very good job at portraying this question through a family-based background, which is what thanksgiving is all about. He successfully answers the question through logical analysis, mostly by attacking head on four claims and giving credible evidence. He presents the arguments in a humorous way, like “If grinning for an uncomfortably long time like a scary lunatic isn’t your cup of tea, try expressing gratitude instead.” This is an example of Brooks comments to ease himself into his claims, playing the audiences emotions into his court. By successfully placing witty sentences throughout his to the point claims and evidence, Brooks keeps his audience stable, and willing for change, in a sense, with their side of the argument.
So what exactly were Arthur Brook’s claims, and why are they effective? First and foremost, he claims evidence that of people can keep a list of things they are grateful for, then they will be happier, even the smallest parts of their everyday life. This is a good starting evidence because they main question is how to be thankful. Even by forcefully being thankful, in Brooks view, will stimulate an overall happier lifestyle. Brook’s next important claim is that “gratitude stimulates the hypothalamus...” He begins to explain how the hypothalamus works, which is a more scientific function to the body. He goes on to explain next by, in a way, kneeling down to get on the audiences level to help them understand, and says, “It’s science, but also common sense: Choosing to focus on good things makes you feel better than focusing on bad things.” By reassuring his points, Brooks helps guide the audience into his side of the argument, giving them just another reason to side with him.
Though a counter-claim is small, it surely goes a long way, especially when it relates well with the topic. Brooks does this well with a perfect timed counter-claim. After Brooks gives all of his supporting facts, he gives a narrative, which was an example, on how he was able to show gratitude in a difficult situation with an angry reader of his book. He explains just how he thanked the reader for acknowledging his work, pretty much showing, not telling. After this, he gives the counter-claim that showing gratitude too much can make you grow obese. He defends this with some humor, calling it the Pumpkin Pie Paradox, but basically goes on to say that being a nice person is probably more important than being tempted to each some candy.
Arthur C. Brooks uses a good deal of humor, but also does a superb job of guiding his audience down his road to support his argument through much narrative, humor, and of course, logical support.

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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 4:35 PM
Thanksgiving is a time for families to come together, and for people to reflect on the things in their life that they are grateful for. Now, what if one doesn’t feel thankful? Should they still celebrate the holiday? The article on gratefulness by Arthur Brooks explains just that. In his piece, Brooks explains the importance of gratefulness, even if the feeling is fake.
In the article, Brooks argues that being grateful, or at least pretending to be, is better that not feeling anything at all. He explains that even faking the feeling can make a person happier. Arthur introduces his topic by telling a story about a Thanksgiving he spent in Spain with his in-laws. He describes the difficulty of putting together the dinner, and also the confusion of his family. One question he was asked, “Should you celebrate this holiday even if you don’t feel grateful?”, opened his eyes and inspired him to write the column. Throughout the rest of the article, he explains how gratitude can be difficult, but acting grateful can actually make one feel grateful.
To convince us of this, he uses several different methods. One thing that draws in his readers in the lightheartedness of the article. He uses a tone that is almost humorous to connect with his readers. He also pulls out many scientific research. By doing so, he uses real facts and and results to prove his point.
This article is overall very well written and thought out. He is very honest and provides a strong argument to convince his audience that it is indeed better to fake it until you make it
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2019 at 5:14 PM
The purpose of this article was written to convince the audience that it is okay to not feel grateful all the time, but acting as so can help reverse those feelings. By expressing gratitude when the actual feeling isn’t there, it can help condition the mind to make these thoughts more natural and occur more often, almost involuntary. The way the author convinces the readers is heavily backed by science. He referenced to multiple studies and tests of people who acted thankful, and after some time felt more positive and appreciative than before. By faking these good thoughts, they became more real and more often expressed. He also states that showing gratitude towards things or people that may not deserve it helps to get results. For example, when insulted or criticized, responding with thanks and kindness helps the offender more likely to mirror the response. Being more susceptible to acting grateful can help when responding to unkind experiences. It is also clearly a bit of an emotional piece, as he begins with discussing how he came upon his question while discussing and celebrating Thanksgiving with his international relatives. He allows his work to not just be seen as a scientific research paper about the mind, but also a relatable source to understand why and how the facade of thanks can become real. This is how he establishes his authority. By allowing the readers to know he’s been in the same place, and how this practice helped him, he becomes more trustable. Him adding these person experiences and events helps the audience see true, positive results and could push them to give it a try. One thing he mentions specifically is being happy for the little things. This gets people thinking about little things they could be happy for. By convincing the readers thinking more positively in this moment, and having almost immediate results, it is proof this method works and should be more often used.
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AnonymousNovember 30, 2019 at 11:59 AM
Arthur Brooks has got an attitude for gratitude. The author of this article, Arthur C. Brooks, tells his purpose of explaining why it is important to show gratitude, even when one is not grateful. He reflects upon an experience with his new bride’s family at a makeshift Thanksgiving celebration. He wanted to add a dash of his American culture to the brew of his bride’s Spanish culture, and by telling his audience of this distorted feast, he brought himself level to his audience. He made himself relatable, this proving his authority as a person familiar with the holiday of which many of his readers will be celebrating in the up and coming days. Just a paragraph later, Brooks notes that for a lot of people “gratitude is difficult because life is difficult”. He again got on the same level as his readers and acknowledged the reason why plethoras of people will struggle with feeling any sort of thankful emotions during the holidays.
Brooks, instead of simply just acknowledging the fact that some people struggle gratitude, explains a reason as to why this could be the case. He utilizes an scientific article published in 2014 to back up his claims. He examples that these researchers discovered a mutation affecting the CD38 gene involved with gratitude. This would affect their ability to feel satisfied with close companions and family. However, it is not impossible to simply practice attitudes for gratitude. Logically speaking, that would, in turn, increase overall happiness. It’s all about training the brain and encouraging it to think positive so that it has an easier time processing those positive emotions. That means acting happy and smiling more even though the situation isn’t always the most pleasant.
What’s interesting about Brooks’s article is that he mixes science, or logos, with common sense, or phronesis. He gives advice that is so universal and so recycled but at the same time, that is what actually works. It’s obvious to note that through a simple acknowledgement, one can make his or her neighbor feel bounties better than they did before. Again, Brooks, proves his point with a relatable story that occurred ten years prior to his writing this article. He was zealous even after a critique had trashed his book, and thus felt accomplished and grateful that someone even took the time to read his book regardless if they hated it or not.
Gratitude is perennial, rather than annual on Thanksgiving. It needs to be cultivated all year round in order to grow and blossom. Tugging on the emotions of his readers, Brooks explains that there are two levels of gratitude: interior and exterior. Reflecting upon one’s own handling of gratitude could make a person sad that they have been doing it wrong all this time or perhaps it all seems too hard to do. In the case of interior gratitude, one has to look at themselves first, which can be hard, especially when they think it is the world that is depriving them of happiness rather than themself. He encourages his audience to feel the authenticity of being thankful that exists in a child. That will instill a permanent attitude for gratitude in them.
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