M.+Carter

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Prezi

Megan Carter Sally Martin English 101 06 December 2013 Friday Summary of “’Half Criminals’ or Urban Athletes? A Plea for Fair Treatment of Skateboarders” In this essay “’Half Criminals’ or Urban Athletes? A Plea for Fair Treatment of Skateboarders” David Langley was skateboarding on the University of California’s campus in 1999 on New Year’s Day when she got stopped by the police even though the campus rule stated “No skateboarding, biking, or rollerblading on campus except on Saturday, Sunday, and holidays” (141) and it was a holiday. He states that him and one friend received warnings from a police officer. Langley believes that skateboarders are receiving unfair treatment by police and that skateboarding is simply just a way to travel in an urban area and it is how people have learned to adapt in the city. Whether or not skateboarding is considered a crime or not, it is totally up to the police officer who catches you because he claims that the laws in Washington and Seattle are unclear. “the definition of reckless is up to the whim of the police officer,” he states (142). Cities have tried to make skateboarding fair, but he believes that skate parks do not help because they are dangerous and crowded due to the fact that “most parks were designed by non-skaters who don’t understand the momentum or gravity pull associated with the movement of skateboards.” (142) Langley states that skateboarding is better for the environment than any other vehicle is such as boats or cars. “In general, skateboarders help the environment more than they hurt it” (142) Skateboarding should be allowed as long as skateboarders skate safely with other people around.

Works Cited Langley, David. “’Half Criminals’ or Urban Athletes? A Plea for Fair Treatment of Skateboarders” Rpt. in //Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings//. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 8th ed. New York: Pearson Longman. 2010. 141-143 Print.

Fallacies- Appeal to Pity 1. Appeal to pity is also known as appeal to emotion. It is a fallacy that the writer uses to try and get the reader to believe a certain thing by making them feel a certain way. The writer also uses the audience's feelings to support a claim that they are trying to justify. Appeal to pity is an attempt to distract from the truth of the conclusion by the use of pity.

2. __Example 1__ In the 1880s, prosecutors in a Virginia court presented overwhelming proof that a boy was guilty of murdering his parents with an ax. The defense presented a "not-guilty" plea for on the grounds that the boy was now an orphan, with no one to look after his interests if the court was not lenient. This appeal to emotion obviously seems misplaced, and the argument is irrelevant to the question of whether or not he did the crime. __Example 2__ "I'm positive that my work will meet your requirements. I really need the job since my grandmother is sick."

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This commercial about the animals at the animal shelter is an example of appeal to pity because it makes you want to feel sorry for the animals and makes you want to do something about it. The makers of the commercial want to make the audience feel the same pity that they feel.

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This video is a commercial targeting people who smoke. The commercial wants to make people who smoke feel bad about themselves and others around them. The commercial wants smokers to believe the way the producers believe, which is that smoking can cause many health issues for those living with the smokers. This is appeal to emotion because it uses the audience's emotion to support the claim of not smoking.