Save the Ivory

                When you think of an elephant what may come to mind is something like a circus show or even a simple peanut. What you may not know is that thousands of innocent elephants a year are being brutally murdered in Africa just for their ivory.  In the New York Times article “Death in the Forest” the unknown author discusses the increasing number of elephants dying per year due to the high demand in Asia for their ivory. African “smugglers” kill these elephants and sneak the ivory out through loopholes into the countries of Asia. These loopholes connect to many markets. The article then goes on to note that the prime minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra, has made a stand to close loopholes surrounding the country of Thailand so African smugglers can no longer have access to the country. With that said, the article was published to spread the message worldwide to stop this crime. This piece is convincing due to the factual evidence and statistics given, although it lacks in personal opinion and therefore the reader does not feel moved to action upon reading this article.

            This piece would make an animal/elephant lover make a stand immediately due to its factual evidence such as its numbers and statistics. This is the logos appeal that shows the logical way someone could feel with this issue.  With thousands in decrease of the lives of these elephants, it would be extremely hard for it to go unnoticed.  The author gives the whole entire story of what has been going on for decades within one article and the most important factual information anyone would need to be convinced this crime has to be stopped.  The anonymous author notes that, “This increased demand has driven the price of ivory to as high as $1,000 a pound in Beijing, marketing life profitable for Africa’s ruthlessly bold poachers and creating a voracious and largely illegal ivory trade,” Not only does the author let us know it was illegal but he tells us how it’s affecting not only the lives of those who kill the elephants but of those who are practically living off this ivory exchange to be able to live their lives as well. When there doesn’t seem like there is any help the author tells us about Thailand’s prime minister, and how he is taking a stand on this situation. The prime minister was taking a stand and the author writing about it, may convince anyone else to take a stand as well.

While the author does give a lot of convincing factual information he lacks in purposing his own opinions which makes this piece so factual it may push people away from reading it. Anyone reading this piece would love to know the facts about what’s going on in the world especially if innocent animals are being killed for something they cannot control. People would also like to have the emotional/pathos appeal as well. This is what the piece needs to become more convincing. Having the facts right in front of you would be an easy way to determine your stand on the issue, but what about the people who need more than just facts and more on the opinions of other people’s stand on the issue? The author does not have any opinionated sentences in his piece except for his last paragraph, “A world that can probably do little to diminish China’s appetite for ivory had to do everything it can to stop feeding it,” which happens to be his thesis and his only opinionated sentence throughout the whole piece. Not once while talking about the situation and what is going on does the author ever present his emotion and or feeling towards the situation. While reading this, it is very easy to say that the author is putting out the piece to get a message across but has no stand on the issue. Not having opinions I feel will push readers away from the issue due to just how much factual evidence there really is. If it’s just all facts it may encourage the reader to learn about the situation and stop there, so that no stand will be taken but just information will be learned.

            While analyzing the “Death in the Forests” article I was shocked to see how many elephants are dying each year due to this outrageous demand for ivory through the continent of Asia. The author calls to an action without an actual action being brought up and what we can do to prevent the issue. This article would have been more convincing if the other actual mentioned some actions that could possibly be taken. For example what can American’s do to help these massacre killings happening in the world. Innocent gentle giants are being killed by the thousands and sooner or later the continent of Africa will no longer have an elephant population.

Kohn Evaluation

Alfie Kohn's piece "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation" I believe is sound due to him accurately opposing his oppostions fallicies. He specifically describes fallacies following the myths with grade inflation. He gives information which he has gotten through actual facts and then follows this information with his own infromation in which he found himself. The SAT issue which has always been an issue with me comes up and this is where I found Kohn's piece most interesting. "Even if one believes that the SAT is a valid and valuable exam, however, the claim that scores are dropping is a poor basis for the assertion that grades are too high. First, it is difficult to argue that a standardized test taken in high school and grades for college course work are measuring the same thing. Second, changes in aggregate SAT scores mostly reflect the proportion of the eligible population that has chosen to take the test." Here he puts out that highschool SATs are not relevant to those of college grades. I do believe how you learned high school should reflect in college courses but I do not think they should be mixed. "Finally, they report that more states are adding high-school graduation tests and even standardized exams for admission to public universities. Yet that trend can be explained by political factors and offers no evidence of an objective decline in students' proficiency. For instance, scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as "the nation's report card" on elementary and secondary schooling, have shown very little change over the past couple of decades, and most of the change that has occurred has been for the better." I also agree with this statement as well. The students test is supposively being improved yet they are seeing no changes. Being a college student this doesnt seem appealing and would discourage people from going to a public university. I believe Kohn stated facts and he backed it up with his own words and data. His argument is sound due to the fact he was able to pull out opposing fallacies and back them up with his own evidence.