Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations

via  Flicker by Joost Assink  " Film Noir 1" https://www.flickr.com/photos/joostassink/2646105389

In this post I evaluate the sources I found that  somewhat answer my research questions in the previous post.


The Huffington Post:  "North Korea Sanctions Must Target Regime To Bruise Economy"

• Author: The author of this article is Alexander C. Kaufman. He's a business editor for the Huffington Post and worked as a staff reporter for the Boston Globe and The International Business Times . He lives in Brooklyn New York and his specialty in writing  seems to be geared toward business and finance on a global scale.

• Audience: The Audience is  focused toward people who are interested in  knowing  how the sanction will affect North Korea's unstable economy and for people who want to know how they've been sustaining themselves for this long. I would describe the audience as pretty well informed , from the comments they seemed to be split on whether the sanction was a good idea or not.

• Context: The article was written months ago in January and it's used in a QRG format to deliver it to the masses. The recent controversies and scandals that have surrounded North Korea seemed to have shaped the author's views . I do think this article reflects a topic as well as offers an opinion becasue the author goes into detail of the money laundering and shady financial things North Korea does , justifying the sanctions instead of talking about the  economic impact it will have on the citizens .

Reuters:  "North Korea's very bad year and China's role in it" 

• Author: The author of this piece is Andray Abrahamian . He is the Executive Director of Research at the Choson Exchange, which is a non-profit that trains North Korean citizens in entrepreneurship , economic policy and law. He has a few articles written about him and his work with North Korea. He also :seems to understand the culture and citizens well from his twitter posts .

• Audience : The audience of this piece would have to have a knowledge in economics, trade, and policy. Perhaps stock brokers and investors, interested in the Asian market  would be the type of audience this is geared towards becasue of the great detail of information and financial terminology used .

• Context: This was written in July of this year and doesn't use any sources except the author's own knowledge, unlike the previous article.  Although the writing doesn't list a blatant opinion of what's bad or good , the content of the article does seem to be trying to elicit sympathy for North Korean citizens as it goes through detailed information explaining why China would affect North Korean citizen and the economy .

The Washington Post:  "North Korea's growing economy-and America's  Misconceptions about it"

• Author: The author of this article is Anna Fifield who is the post's Bureau Chief of Tokyo and who's writing focuses on Japan and the Koreas. She's worked for the Financial Times in Washington D.C and Seoul , South Korea. Currently she's in Eastern Europe covering the refugee crisis. 

• Audience: the audience is intended to be for people who are interested in learning more about North Korea's current stance on capitalism, labor and the tremulous relationship between China and North Korea. The audience is also divided between feeling bad for the citizens and feeling contempt for the North Korean government and China.

• Context: This article was written in March of this year and seems to be based on the observations and personal interviews the writer made while visiting this particular factory. This article also uses it information  to elicit sympathy and contempt from the masses as it describes the poor laborers and managers who do their business for North Korea outside of the country in China. It uses the personal opinions of actual citizens and people involved to construct the article and expresses the idea that North Korea is opening it's way to capitalism to survive economically .

Reflection: From reading Lia and Stefs' blog posts the one thing I realized is that it helps whoever is reading the sources to be able to connect he articles to each other and know why the author chose them in researching their question and be able to see what direction the author is going in as well. I think my post was developed well because like Lia and Stef's posts I tried to get different opinions and situations from the articles that offered different perspectives of the topic. With this in mind It made me lean towards the Washington Post article more becasue it offered the viewpoints from actual businessmen working in China for the North Korean government. 

Developing a Research Question

via Flickr by Duncan Hull " Question Everything (Nullius in Verba) take nobody's Word for it "  https://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/202872717 

1. My first research question concerning my field of study would probably be which companies contribute the most to the global economy as a whole and what would happen if they were to fail.?  From what I know  huge corporations generate enough revenue for an economy to where if they were to falter a little bit it would create major consequences.
2. What controversies are concerning these corporations?  Whenever there is a controversy concerning top companies their stocks drop a little and it creates a ripple affect in the market .
3. Which countries are going through an economic collapse and is there a country who  is trying to help them and are there countries who don't want to help them? I'm pretty sure every country goes through a recession, depression, or collapse every other month but I would like to know North Korea specifically, becasue they are kind of a taboo country who plays by their own rules and I want to know how they're being sustained financially.  

Reflection on Project 1

via Flickr by Asaf Braverman " Frog looking into mirror"

In this post I analyze the ups and downs of this project

• Challenges? The only real challenge I faced was editing and analyzing my work, because it's not something I usually do. It literally took longer to revise than to actually write it. However it was a good learning process because , in high school no one really went through and broke down the details you're suppose to go into when editing. I faced this challenge by following the advice and instructions given to me by my peers and the book.

• Successes? This might be a minimal thing but when I researched and could actually connect all the sources I found  to get a better picture of the controversy was a success to me. I felt like a detective. For example I could link the real  reason America disapproved the bank to a scholarly source and follow up with it in my writing. 

• Effective Strategies? The most effective strategies used were summarizing different information while using credible resources. Just the act of  condensing all the sources and connecting them together in a 3 sentence paragraph was extremely useful for this project becasue it  helped keep the structure of a QRG. As for design I just used a  basic title -paragraphs format of most articles and since it doesn't hurt anything , It's pretty effective in organizing ideas in a structured, orderly form.

• Least Effective?   Using arguments from other perspectives . There wasn't any opinions being voiced from China about America's disapproval , I guess they didn't really care, so I couldn't use America vs. China conflict becasue it was more of America vs. the greater good  or U.S governments vs. the words of professionals. Also it wasn't effective to use the opinions from social media because not a lot of people were talking about it and if they were they were only regurgitating what articles or videos said . Only a few people had opinions but they couldn't really be used in the QRG. A complete formal writing format wasn't helpful  as well becasue this project wouldn't be considered an essay.

• Similar to other School Experiences? This was most similar to writing articles for my Journalism class. There was research involved , adding pictures , and citing sources but not as much effort was put into researching different viewpoints or other sources.

• Different from other School Experiences? Most school assignment were formal and required long paragraphs that didn't care about readability. This assignment was a lot more casual and also used different sources other than books and news papers to make a point, it used social media which was a different take on citing sources.
• Would Skills be Useful for other coursework?  Yes. Summarizing. Summarizing would definitely  be useful for other coursework becasue it helps shorten all the information you learn and be able to display it for readers without having to write pages and pages of  it for them to understand.

Reflection:

In reading Chris and Carrie's Blog posts I realized that the whole project was a bit difficult on everyone whether it was trying to figure out the correct amount of  information to put in your QRG or whether it was just trying to reach the deadlines . However I think it's cool that we all gained knowledge in something (like reading your words over and over until brain hurts) and that fact alone proves it wasn't a wasteful learning experience. 

Published Project 1

via Commons Wikimedia  by Joelrobledo97  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Finally.png

And I'm done (not really) *sigh*

Clarity pt 2

"clear water" by Marcus Zorbis via Flickr  https://www.flickr.com/photos/zorbis/387275733

In this post I go over four new topics I learned about in  Rules For Writers and revise my QRG with the new things that I didn't really learn but more likely forgot about .

Balance Parallel Ideas : With this topic I already knew that the way certain sentences are written sometimes could be seen as awkward but I wasn't aware that ideas in a series or pair could be considered awkward as well if they didn't appear in the same grammatical format. It made me look over my lengthy sentences that  displayed a bunch ideas and wonder if they would be considered awkward. For example this sentence , " Regardless of America's’ disapproval more than 50 countries, even American  allies, Australia and South Korea, joined the founding of the AIIB  this past spring." It seemed fine when I read over it the first few times but then I just felt like it was series of awkward phrases my brain spit up .


Unnecessary Repetition of Words: Obviously I know what this is but I didn't realize it in my own writing . However when I scanned it for the umpteenth time I saw I kept repeating " This is why " and "That is the reason" at the beginning of my sentences. The topic suggested instead of keeping up a redundancy of words to give a more concise version of it , which helped in my revision.

Variety in Sentence Structures (Variety in General): I already knew I needed some variety in my paragraphs because of the last blog post when it was difficult to spot different sentence structures and purposes . The suggestion the book gave of varying my sentence openings connects with the previous topic of repetition. But , I also thought about varying the sentence purposes to make the article more interesting as well. for example I tried to add an interrogative purpose in one of my sentences. " As this would start to supply jobs money would flow easier , thus , helping some countries out of debt.  and why not? It would be beneficial to the greater good of the economy."

Add Words: Adding words wasn't something that I thought I needed to do ,but there was a comment from one of my peers who reviewed my writing that said they misunderstood that only America disapproved of the bank and from my previous sentences they assumed all the countries were against it as well. I think it was because of this sentence: "Although it seems to be a very positive economic move, not every country agreed with it’s creation." I thought maybe I should add that only one country disapproved of it .

Identifying Basic Grammar Patterns

"Magnifying glass" by Derek Bridges via Flickr   https://www.flickr.com/photos/derek_b/159568080

In this post I closely and methodically scan the longest paragraph in my QRG for basic grammar pattern .

This activity showed me that I don't analyze anything I write , I just write whatever comes out of my head first .Although I could find most of the things in the list,  it was still kind of difficult. It seems that my pattern of writing was part conversation and part formal writing because of the strange wording of some sentences . If anything I would like to work on putting more variation in my writing such as sentence purpose and structure.

My longest paragraph 

Paragraph analysis

via Flickr by Tollie Schmidt " I am the greatest" https://www.flickr.com/photos/tollieschmidt/801273343









In this post I state my weakness and strengths in the draft I wrote of the AIIB controversy

• Strengths- My main strength in my QRG was stating the idea of my paragraphs, emphasizing key points and explaining what was going to my readers. I noticed in my own work that i could bring focus to these main points and tie them back to the main idea.

• Weaknesses - Transitioning and Organization were probably my weakest points because I  wasn't sure if just a two sentence paragraph could really be a structured organized idea or if it was just some additional information  that I decided to make into another paragraph. Another thing was the development of my ideas. In my more lengthy paragraphs I could see where I  developed the idea and  organized it to make sense, but in my shorter ones I couldn't see the development of main ideas, it was more like they were small  ideas from the lengthy paragraphs that I broke off into separate paragraphs.

My paragraph analysis 

Reflection on Project 1 Draft

via Ludovic Bertron  on flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/23912576@N05/3056871500

As for the image above i'm not sure what the joker has to do with reflections but I assume he's drawing on a mirror and mirror's have reflections so.. *shrug*


For the peer review edit I reviewed Olivia and Michaela's  QRG drafts.

• Who? - My professor , I'm assuming ,will be reading my work and a few of my classmates. I'm trying to reach the people who don't know about the current state of global financial affairs and who don't understand the intricacies of tilting political power and how it relates to money.

• Values and Expectation?- The audience expects a well written , casual , short ,but still detailed informative article about the AIIB and the controversy surrounding it. 

• How much Info?-  I should give them enough so they can figure out what is going on. I should provide background information on topics that basic knowledge can't cover.

• What Kind of Language is Suitable?-Informative slightly professional  language is suitable because i'm presenting a brief  summary of a controversy that i'm assuming my audience doesn't know about.

• What Tone Should I Use?- A casual tone is probably best because if I were to use the dry intellectual tone that is used in most essays the audience would get bored and reader's fatigue would kick in and they would eventually stop reading. However if I used a casual tone it would be more like a friend trying to inform about an issue rather than a teacher trying to lecture.

•  Formatting requirements of the assignment?-  The format requires short but detailed paragraphs, images, hyperlinks to sources, quotes,  a title , and subheadings. I'm pretty sure I meet the requirements .

• Content requirements?- The content of the article should be centered around a current controversy that is connected with my major, Economics.  My writing has to show the different sides of the controversy while simply informing the audience of what is happening. I'm pretty sure I meet the content requirements as well.

• Does my Draft reflect knowledge or skills gained in class as well as my own ideas and voice?- Yep.  If I didn't learn what a QRG was in class I wouldn't have even known how to to start this project, and my own ideas and voice are used throughout the writing. 

• Have I addressed any grammatical issues that my teacher highlighted in class or in my previously graded assignments?- I think I have . I went over the grammar suggestions my peers pointed out in their revision of my work and I corrected them.

Clarity Pt 1

by Farrukh " i feel so transparent" https://www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/5496634282

In this post I choose four topics from the Clarity section that I was unaware of and could use in my own writing.

 Untangling Mixed Constructions
Although I understand what a mixed construction is (sentence parts that don't logically fit together) I never realized how easy it was to get mixed up.  As I was reading the examples I noticed that  I could have easily mixed up one of paragraphs. If I was in a rush to get something I could have slipped up on some grammar or the order of ideas that could be misconstrued to the reader. Even though I know what the paragraph is suppose to mean  I now know  I should read over it several times and revise it slowly just in case the reader gets confused.

Eliminating Distracting Shifts
This topic focuses on keeping everything consistent in terms of point of view, verb and mood. I didn't realize that a writer needs to keep everything the same , in terms of word choice. for example if you use jumped you should keep the other verbs past tense as well. It makes obvious sense but I tend to just write papers directly from the ideas in my head regardless of consistency in shifts or not, so this topic gave me something else to look out for in my revision.

Emphasize Key Ideas
The topic focuses on making sure you emphasize the main idea of a paragraph while making sure you subordinate a minor idea as well .I felt like this focused more  on the organization of a sentence and  making sure your main point stands out . It was new to me that there were many ways to make your point stand out in your writing, such as using sentence endings and parallel structure. The topic made me wonder if I did enough emphasizing in my paragraphs so that the reader will know what the key point is without having to search for it.

Tighten Wordy Sentences
The most important thing in revising my draft was the condensing of paragraphs because I felt like I wrote too much.In this topic it offered different ways to make a lengthy phrase into a concise one. For example it offered ways to cut out empty or inflated phrases with shorter ones as well as how to reduce clauses to phrases and those phrases to words . I wasn't sure how to cut out the unnecessary parts of my paragraphs without cutting out essential information so this particular topic was extremely helpful in that aspect.

Reflection:

While reviewing Olivia and Michaela's drafts I learned that a common factor was emphasizing the key point and tightening up wordy sentences. Olivia's draft  demonstrated emphasizing key points well with hyperlinks and quotes for example :"It definitely won’t kill you- “Aspartame is one of the most exhaustively studied substances in the human food supply, with more than 100 studies supporting its safety” (via FDA).  Perhaps the best advice comes from The Salt, “Drink water instead.”
As for wordy sentences Michaela's draft had an example ",In order for the land to be protected from mining, a bill proposed by Arizona representative Raul Grijalva would have to be passed to counteract the rider addition to the National Defense Authorization Act that handed the land over in the first place." Instead of this sentence it could be "For the land to be protected, a Bill would have to be passed to counteract the one that handed over the land in the first place.

Thoughts on Drafting

  by JD Hancock "take my advice, I'm not using it"  https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/3553699652

In this post I evaluate the books's advice and decide what I thought was helpful and what was not.


1. Helpful

• For the QRG genre the PIE format mentioned was useful in constructing paragraphs.  The QRG genre demands easy readability for the audience and to do that it has to be in short paragraphs. It was helpful in creating a structure of information that was short and easy to skim for the readers.

• Organizing information was also essential to creating my QRG. It helped form how I would create a flow of ideas and  which part of my controversy I would introduce first and lead through the article with .  It also guided me in what order I would list important pieces of information, 

2. Not as Helpful

• Considering the genre I was writing , a thesis wasn't really needed. The purpose of a thesis is to summarize the entire essay into a brief paragraph so that the reader knows what's going to be talked about it. However a QRG is a summary, and in most QRG articles each paragraph could be considered a thesis, Not that it wasn't helpful , but it just seems to be a redundant piece of advice. 

• Writing a conclusion was also redundant because a QRG is a short news article , there's going to be a conclusion . but it's not going to include what was spoken of in the first paragraph like essay conclusions would. 

3. Meh

• Writing an introduction was okay because the first sentence of the QRG should grab the reader's attention but I think with a nice title you kind of already do that. overall I think the advice in the book was useful for a formal essay but a lot of it could be used for structuring a QRG as well. 

Reflections:

Overall from reading the other blog posts I feel like I was right in my assessment of what was helpful and what wasn't . Mathias and Carrie Belle both agreed that the PIE format and the organization  of paragraphs were the most useful  . However Mathias noted that introductions were of some importance as well and it made me wonder if what I wrote as the first sentence of my draft was enough to hook the reader, or if the title and sub headings were enough to do that.

1. In my draft I feel like I need to use more images to illustrate the topic better .
2. I also think I should condense my paragraphs more into something smaller and more readable.
3. I need to change the in text quotes and paraphrase more by stating the idea and just linking the phrases to the sources.

Draft of Quick Reference Guide

This post is to address my peers , please go easy on my writing.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deeplifequotes/18569232992 by Live Life Happy
"I-feel-like-I-put-in-too-much-effort-sometimes"

That being said , Just as  a warning , I may have written more than I intended but only because I was caught between how much information the reader should know , which information was just the basics of the issue, and which was just extra . I did shorten it, (Probably not that much to anyone reading it) and I'm not sure if it makes for easier readability.

*sigh*     Here it is.  

Practicing Quoting

In this post I practice quoting sources and I highlight the use of signal phrases , the establishment of my sources authority, the contextualization of my source material , and the use of ellipses and brackets.

Legend 

•  Blue=contextualization of quotes
• Red=establishment of authority of my sources
• Yellow=brackets or ellipses where I've put words in or left them out
• Green= signal phrases surrounding quotes 

There wasn't many differing opinions about the Asia infrastructure bank. Most economists and reporters seemed puzzled that America would oppose , however I used  the American governments differing opinion against the thoughts of an expert economist to display the overall idea of the controversy.

QRGs: The Genre

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaszaz/533822752
created by JKlesow

In this post I describe the conventions of the QRG, quick reference guide genre and use examples from different online sources to name these conventions.

• 1.) The conventions of the QRG genre are concise /detailed paragraphs, hyperlinks, subheadings ,sometimes worded as questions for easy read,   a casual tone , a title and  images 

• 2.) In the Sochi Olympics article the author  uses bold  subheadings posed as questions so whoever is reading can skim over the content  easily and find what they are actually interested to read about . The author also uses several hyperlinks to verify what they are saying.  and has an  image for each subheading . The words in the article are also written in a very casual and understanding tone.

• 3.) The purpose of the QRG seems to be to provide a quick informative but entertaining read  for people who want to know what's going on but doesn't want to read pages and pages of information. 

• 4.) The intended audience for these QRGs are pointed towards people with interest in the content matter. For example if  a person was interested in the Sochi Olympics they would understand the questions and comments in the subheadings . Or if you were a person who followed Black Lives Matters news you would understand the subheadings and know of the implied knowledge the sub headings were hinting at. 

• 5.) The QRGs use plenty of  images to give the reader a visual state of mind of what the article is about and how they should feel about it. In the case of the article about Greece's debt crisis the image of the little girl is used to provoke an emotion of pity. Whereas the visuals used in the E cigarettes article is simply just to provide informative images, like the graph ,and to give the reader an idea of what the subject is.

Reflection :

Overall from reading Lia,  Hunter, and Aaron's blog posts the main point that keeps sticking out in the QRG genre,  is making it easier for the reader to understand. This point was emphasized heavily in each post . It made me think about  today's audience and wonder why it's such a daunting task  for anyone to read anything that isn't heavily spaced into short paragraphs . Have people gotten lazier? Less intelligent ? Is time a factor? Are the masses that busy? I don't know the answers to these questions but it just made me wonder, since the biggest and most important point in a QRG seems to be to accommodate the readers as much as possible.

Lia 

Hunter

Aaron 

Cluster of my Controversy

https://coggle.it/diagram/VfJA9G939JE41-fV
created by Zayla Crocker

In my cluster I wrote short points explaining what the issue was about and who was debating and discussing it . I separated the two sides of the controversy and explained each sides reasoning about the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank.


Reflection: I looked at Jon and Aaron's  cluster map and was astonished at how organized both were . Jon used Coggle just as I had did but he separated his points well and even color coded each side of his controversy. Aaron used Xmind for his map and , graphically I think it looks better than mine. Overall , going over both cluster maps made me feel as if I could have organized mine better so people could read over it easily.

Annotated Bibliography In APA Form

https://www.flickr.com/photos/43852430@N07/6271000379
by LOLitsLloyd 

The Citation style used commonly for Economics is APA which is generally used to cite references for the Social Sciences.

Annotated Bibliography

      (2015,April, 4), Establishment of AIIB to bring myriad of advantages : expert. China Daily European Edition, Retrieved from www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/inacademic

The author uses this article to explain the benefits and advantages other countries would receive from the AIIB. The article uses direct quotes from a deputy director of the foreign policy and strategic studies in Vietnam to back up their article.

In this source I observed that the article is persuasive in listing the advantages and benefits of the AIIB by using the quotes from a person of authority. This could be put to future use by explaining the advantages  of the new bank from a different country's perspective.

     Dollar, D. (2014, October,22) The Creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Is the               Right Move for the Global Economy Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Dollar uses his article to explain the reason for and the benefits of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, He argues from  China's point of view defending their reason for creating a separate institution to help fund  and develop projects that could further the Asian economy. 

 I observed that Dollar's experience as an economist for the Chinese Center of the Brookings Institute made his point of view credible and I could see the financial need for the AIIB. I could see this article becoming a reference for people who want to look up the acknowledged benefits of the AIIB. 

      Felixon, C. ( 2015, August, 24) China The Key to The New World Order [online post]  Retrieved          from http://plus.google.com

Felixon's purpose was to draw attention to the far edge of controversial matters and write about the recently developed AIIB as a government conspiracy.

Felixon  cites an investigative journalists you tube video to back up their post of the subject matter. I observed that rather than citing from more informative and objective sources that the writer chooses to write  from a different perspective . In the future someone could site this as part of the public's reaction to the AIIB issue.

     Keynes, E.(2015, August, 21)  After The United States Recent Diplomatic Disaster[ online post]          Retrieved from http://plus.google.com

Keynes purpose of her post was to simply inform on the topic at hand while offering a bit of her opinion. The author references to a news site to offer further clarification on the subject.

I observed that although the author uses descriptive vocabulary to describe the U.S's opposition they remain informative  and a person could reference this post as another reaction from the public about China's AIIB creation .

       Kilby, C. (2013) An Empirical Assessment of Informal Influence in the World Bank. Economic             Development and Cultural Change,  61, 431-464. doi: 10. 1086/668278

Kilby uses mathematical equations and models to explain the influence certain countries have over international institutions like the Word Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He uses this evidence to cite donor influence control over which countries were able to get loans for projects.

The article granted some insight into other likely reasons the U.S would oppose China's new bank; because it would challenge the influence and power the U.S holds over institutions like the World bank. This article would be best used for an essay that went into the different explanations of why the U.S would disapprove another internationally funded bank.

        laststandb (2015, May) What are the effects of China Creating a Bank (AIIB-Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank). Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com

The author of the post answers the question by describing what the AIIB is and it's purpose of distributing soft power and policy conditions. The author uses what they know without citing any sources.

The post gives some insight into what everyday citizens know of the AIIB and their thoughts and questions about it. This post could be put to future use by citing what the everyday person knows about the AIIB

         McNally, C .(2012) Sino-Capitalism: China's Reemergence and the International Political          Economy [Abstract] . World Politics, 64,741-776                                                           http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/stable/41683132

McNally's writing serves to go into depth between the relationship between China's growing economy and the already established , American Economy. McNally draws examples from China and America's economy and goes  further to define Sino-Capitalism and it's relationship to the U.S.

The writing offered further illumination into the economic relationship with America and China and for future use could aid a person in understanding America's  reservations about the AIIB

      Northam,J. (2015,March,31) Dozens of Countries Join China Backed Bank Opposed by                Washington Retrieved from http:// www.npr.org

Northam's purpose in writing the article was to inform the reader of which countries were joining the AIIB despite the U.S's disapproval and which were remaining loyal. , It also further explains the reason for the U.S's opposition and future plans to work with the AIIB.

Northam utilizes the credible sources from the Wall Street Journal and the Center for Strategic and International studies to back up her information.I observed that the author takes an objective stance on the subject and I could see this article becoming a neutral resource for people looking for informative updates on the situation.

      Stiglitz, J (2015, April,13)Why America doesn't Welcome China's New Infrastructure Bank      Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Stiglitz's purpose in writing the article was to question and offer reasoning as to why America would oppose the AIIB. The author uses America's previous history with plans for other world monetary institutions to back up the claim that America doesn't want  the bank to undermine it's influence in the global finance market.

I observed that the author answers their own question in the article and backs up their claim with historical evidence , and I could see this article becoming a source for evidence in proving that America's main reason for opposition is because of the fear of losing influence in the world market

       The Money GPS~Author Exposing the Truth. (2015, March, 30) Currency War! 40 Countries Join China in  Asian Infrastructure Investment [video file]. Retrieved from http://youtube.com

The purpose of the video was to  explain what the AIIB is, it's functions , and  to give details into how it will effect the future.  The youtuber uses sources from Reuters and Wikipedia to emphasize their idea.

I observed that the youtuber used plenty of sources to emphasize their point and even expanded on those point with their own  knowledge and predictions. This source could be used to expand on different points and effects the AIIB will have on the future global economy








APA Annotated Bibliography

Reflection:
Looking at Joy's post made me a bit envious at first because AMS seems so much simpler than APA, but then I realized  whether it looks simpler or not , no one wants to do them anyway. However I do recognize the need for them and when I viewed Allison's post , who also has APA,  I realized that summarizing while you're citing your sources is helpful for people looking them up.

Joy
Allison

Ideology In My Controversy

https://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/6210317862 
by epSos.de 

The controversy of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank is making news as the U.S disapproves of  a new internationally funded institution that could challenge the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in which the U.S holds influence over.

•  Who's involved: The controversy involves the governments of  China and the U.S . Most countries including America's allies South Korea and Australia have joined the AIIB despite America not approving it. Japan , however has remained loyal to the U.S

• Major Speakers : The major speakers of the issue between the U.S and America would be Jane Yellen the Chair of the Federal reserve Board of Governors and Jin Liqun , a Chinese politician who has been appointed the head of the the AIIB 

• Power They Hold : Each group is a politically strong government with several allies. The U.S holds democratic power in it's favor and the fact that it already has established control in international funds. China is a communist power but has gain economic power at such  a fast pace that they can development a strong bank like the AIIB.

• Resources Available : America still has influence over the World Bank and The International Monetary Fund as well as Japan on it's side. China now has the AIIB with the backing of 40 different countries .

• Values They Have: In general America values democracy , capitalism and free trade and China values socialism and communist views however China has been  rising as an economic power that has been opening trade little by little. 

• Evidence: The U.S fears the AIIB will challenge the World Bank and International Monetary Fund which is evident in how quickly China has rose economically and  how China has the backing from some of America's Allies, such as Australia and South Korea. China wanted to create the AIIB to help develop Asia's economy  further and fund different projects to help their society.

•  Power Differential: There is a power differential between the two groups because not only are they different countries but they are different governments with opposite policy ideals. The reason America disapproves of  the AIIB is because they fear it will have more power than the  international banks , funds,and projects  it has influence over. 

• Known Common Ground: he acknowledged common ground between China and the U.S is the fact that China does need the money to develop parts of its' country even further and other parts of Asia as well. 

• Unknown Common Ground: There isn't any unacknowledged common ground since each group knows most of the what the other group is doing and both are working towards an agreement.

• Listening to Each Other: I'm sure China and the U.S listen to each other, because it's not a petty issue involving a couple million dollars but trillions of dollars involving the billions of citizens and what they need. They respond directly to the claims made by the heads of their groups and the U.S is working towards having a helping relationship between the World Bank and AIIB

Evaluation of Social Media Sources

https://www.flickr.com/photos/liako/3141182898
by Elias Bizannes

The social media sources I found related to the AIIB Issue  ( Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank)  were from Elena Keynes and Christine Felixon  on Google + and  below I evaluate the following questions about their posts.

 - Elena Keynes

 Christine Felixon

• Credibility: Elena's Keynes doesn't  belong to any institution  or organization related to the topic but she seems to post a great deal about world interest news . Christine Felixon has vague introduction about what she does and where she studied but  is connected with the International People's Coalition for Humanity and from her twitter she shows a great amount of interest in world news , controversies, and conspiracies .

• Location: Neither one is from China but they're both posting from American locations.  Keynes is posting from Cambridge,Massachusetts and Felixon is posting from Las Vegas, Nevada  . Also neither one seems to be directly involved with the AIIB controversy.

• Network:  In Keynes circle on Google +   she only has 75 followers , they seem to be a diverse group of  people who post about political world news  , such as grad students and people who share the same interests she has. Felixon  has over 3000 followers on Google + who also seem to have a diverse range of careers and from around the world but the general posts seems to be about conspiracies and government cover ups.

• Content: The information in Keynes post can be corroborated from an article from postwestern world.com.The information in Felixon's post can be corroborated  from an investigative journalist, James Corbett, of Corbett report and includes a you tube video link from Corbett reports on the Chinese New World Order.

• Contextual Update: Keynes posts about several  political world topics and other subjects related to the AIIB controversy such as her post about the International Monetary Fund director meeting up in Ukraine to discuss AIIB  it fills in more details about who is for and against the AIIB topic. Felixion doesn't have related topics on her posts because she seems to generally post about government controversies that leas to conspiracy questions.

• Age: The age of the accounts aren't shown from their posts but regarding the amount followers and content they have each posted  it's been a few years for each of them

• Reliability: Based on each post I would consider Elena Keynes post to be the most reliable because it doesn't seem to be one sided, just informative on her interest in world politics . Felixon however seems to be geared towards controversies and cover ups since she links a YouTube video that states that the AIIB was planned years beforehand by the government.

Evaluation of Scholarly Sources

Adhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/2859859616d caption
by Alan Levine

China's' new  Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank is drawing controversy from the U.S who is opposed to its' development because it might challenge the world bank and other internationally funded institutions. the scholarly sources I've chose talk about The influence the U.S holds over international monetary institutions   and the economic relationship between China and the U.S.

• Purpose: An Empirical Assessment of Informal Influence in the World Bank is written to illuminate on the question of  which countries have influence in international monetary institutions . In Sino-Capitalism: China's Reemergence and International Political Economy the writer seeks to contrast the relationship between the U.S and China economies . The purpose of these two articles is to inform students of this study to be used as resources in future papers.

• How and Where it was published: The Empirical Assessment was published by the University of Chicago Press in the Economic Development and Cultural Change journal. Sino-Capitalism was published by Cambridge University Press in the World Politics journal

• What kind of Sources Does it Cite: Empirical Assessment cites 41 references from other  journals and academic sources such as the International Studies Quarterly and the European Economic Review. Sino-Capitalism cites 247 references from authors of academic sources as well.

• Author: The  author of Empirical Assessment is Christopher Kilby  , an associate professor  of economics at the Villanova school of Business at Villanova University in Pennsylvania . The author of Sino-Capitalism is Dr. Christopher A. McNally a political economist who earned his PhD at the University of Washington.  

• Intended Audience: The intended audience is other academic scholars in this discipline who , I would assume, have prior knowledge in this field.

• How I found it: I found both sources through The University of Arizona Library database, JSTOR

An Empirical Assessment of  Informal Influence in the World Bank

Sino Capitalism: China's Reemergence and the International Political Economy

Evaluation of General Sources

https://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalcurrency/2438941120
by Mark Herpel

A recent controversy in the economic sphere is about the creation of China's new internationally funded bank , the  Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank . The U.S opposed it's creation because it would challenge the World Bank in which America holds influence  over. The following articles from the NY Times and NPR shed light on the controversy.

• URL:  The URL  used by  NY Times  has  .com at the end because it's the most common used domain for commercial business such as a reputable newspaper. The URL for NPR ends in . org because NPR usually takes a more objective standpoint as a non profit organization and NY Times is open  to incite  intellectual debates  as well as inform.  Each one could be consider credible because they are known for having detailed information backed by credible sources.

• Author: The author of the NY Times article is David Dollar . The author is a senior fellow at the China Center of Brookings,  a  world renowned economic think tank. He was also the U.S Treasury Departments Economic and Financial Emissary for China from 2009 to 2013. The author for NPR , Jackie Northam , isn't as well versed in economics as David but she is a foreign correspondent for NPR as well as a  20 year veteran journalist . 

• Last Updated: NY Times was last updated in October of 2014 while NPR was written in 2015 but doesn't state when it was updated. the links on the NY page work and lead to more discussions about the subject as well as other related topics.  On NPR it has working links to Wall Street Journal , Reuters and other informative sites.

• Purpose:  The text of NPR is simply trying to inform the reader of the controversy while David Dollar is clearly stating his opinion on the subject and persuading the reader to consider that the Chinese Bank is a good for the economy.

• Graphics: The graphic on NPR is a picture of the signing ceremony of the new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank , clarifying the informative stand NPR emphasizes with this image. Their isn't any pictures on NY Times  about the Bank .  Although  There is  a picture of David Dollar which emphasizes my earlier point of the article being a debate and opinion matter rather than just informative.

• Position on Subject: NY Times is an opinion based article on the side of The Chinese Bank while NPR is impersonal and unbiased in it's information.  No one profits from  NPR but if readers who had plenty of investments in China were to read David's article they could benefit from the information .

• Links:  The article on NY Times  doesn't offer an links to back up it's claims but the web page itself offers other discussions and debates on the topic matter  as well as other related news while NPR offers informative links to the Wall Street Journal ,  Reuters and The Center for Strategic and International Studies

NY Times

NPR

My Major

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8011986@N02/2697873692/in/gallery-ecrans-72157629859482062/
Created by Bill Brooks

I have naively  decided to pursue an Economics degree for  my stepping stone into law school . Despite knowing what I was going to learn and the types of jobs most people in my disciple went for after college. I was unaware of the recognized leaders, and journals written about my field of study.

• As a social science, students in this discipline gain knowledge in logical thinking and problem solving  . They learn how to analyze and predict the social , political and monetary trends in the economic sphere and as a result could use this thinking in solving several economic/finance based issues.

•  Most people go on to work for companies, law firms or banks as financial analysts,researchers or lawyers.

• I decided this degree on a whim. I was originally going to major in creative writing because it's my dream to  be a writer and a corporate lawyer,  but then I took an honors Econ class last year in high school and was  instantly  attracted to how money  affects  everything in such intricate ways.  I think  college is an opportunity to learn something new and being how I can already write I think it's good to major in something unexpected for me , just so I can challenge myself.

• In the U.S , the leader of  economic and monetary policy would be economist, Janet Yellen.  She is the serving Chairwoman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the first woman to be chairman in American History.   A leading non profit organization that focuses on economic policies would be the Brookings Institute, one of the oldest think tanks in Washington.

• The most well known economic journal in the world would be The Quarterly Journal of Economics from Oxford University in England. It's published by the oxford university press.          http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/qje/highly_cited_articles_2014.html

•  the Journal of International Economics is from Elsevier, a web based information provider that publishes academic journals . http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-international-economics

• The American Economic Review from the American Economic Association is the oldest scholarly review in the country https://www.aeaweb.org/articles.phpdoi=10.1257%2Faer.105.9

Reflections: In reading Lauren's post of her major in Aerospace Engineering I was highly impressed because it seems like such a difficult but rewarding major to complete and that even though she changes her mind she's still on her career path.  In  reading Chris's blog it  also seemed to me that he chose a difficult but rewarding major.  Both of them are diving into what they want and are heading down a straight path into their career while in retrospect it seems  I'm a bit all over the place. But everyone is different, and I don't regret my decision


http://uofalife.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-discipline.html?showComment=1441438628071#c1694920203171283185

.http://cbohlman109h.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-profession.html?showComment=1441440115558#c8831638927452959898