For my sustainable brand blogging post I chose to read about a brand called Everlane clothing. The brands headquarters are in San Francisco and it was founded in 2010. Everlane stood out to me because they have an interesting approach to being ethical. To start out, they have a very detailed strategy to finding the best factorys. They go to the factories that are known for producing the finest designer labels, and then give a ethics test which evaluates fair wages, reasonable hours, and environmental impact. I really like this approach because not only does it value the quality of the clothing, but it also values the lives of the people making the clothing. If this wasn’t enough, every Black Friday Everlane donates all their profits towards improving the lives of people who work at their factories. This is really cool because Everlane has factories in and outside of the United States so it truly is a universal cause. Another thing Everlane has going for them is the sustanability of their clothing. They put the finest materials in their clothing in an attempt to make their clothing last a long time. This is crucial when it comes to lowering peoples carbon footprints. Everlane also proud themselves on being “radically transparent”. This includes letting their customers know exactly how much money it took to make the product. This is a game changer because people know exactly what the quality of the product they’re investing in is. Overall, I was very impressed with Everlane and their innovative as well as ethical approach.

1.) My takeaway from reading Carrols article and writing my own rhetorical analysis is that Rhetoric is the tactics someone uses to convey their position. If someone chooses to make someone feel bad for a person in their writing they’re trying to appeal to someones emotion.

2.) Rhetoric relates to critical thinking/reading because you need to think critically in order to understand a writers rhetoric. if you don’t think critically you will only get the massage that the author was trying to convey, but you won’t be able to see why and how they conveyed it.

For my environmental blog post I decided to read an article on the website titled “The Climate Crisis is a Human Issue”. The article starts off by talking about how climate change was perceived 30 years ago compared to now. I thought this was really interesting because back then they didn’t think as much about climate changes effect on people only it’s effect on the environment itself. I found this to be super interesting because it shows how serious the issue is. It’s also shows that we as humans don’t these things in the long term as well as we think we do, based on the fact that we didn’t realize how vital a healthy environment was to the human life. Another interesting thing they talked about in the article was how climate change effects low income people and countries first and the most. It also points out that this is especially unjust because these people tend to contribute the least to climate change. I think the reason this article was so intriguing was because it was able to connect two major issues, climate change and racism, and so clearly correlate them. It pointed out how when major hurricanes hit the south, lower income minority area said usually take the bulk of the damage. It also talks about how the environment for people in 3rd world countries has been destroyed by outsiders. That’s why this article points out indigenous people, as well as young people as the biggest activists , due to the fact that the are the most affected.

Upon reading the article Backpack Vs. Briefcases I have found a lot of interesting points made. The piece is centered around rhetorical analysis and how we have been built to use it so much through what we are taught. One example it uses to prove this is how we immediately judge what kind of teacher someone will be based off something as little as what they’re wearing on the first day of class. This really struck with me because I think a lot about how people make so many subconscious judgements. There’s so much stuff going on in our brain all the time that we don’t even recognize and I think that’s what a lot of this article is about. Another part of the reading that I found to be really fascinating was when it talked about rhetorical messages in the media. It talked about how the media is getting better and better at marketing and is thinking of new ways to convince us to buy their product everyday. I really agree with the article when it talks about how it’s on us to breakdown and understand rhetorical messages because by doing this we can prevent being taken advantage of by big companies and the media. I have noticed that a lot of the times they try to market to people not with logic, but with ethos. A lot of the times people need more than logic, so they try to get to peoples emotions so that they will make impulsively purchases on their product. Two really important part sof rhetorical analysis that they talked about were constraints and context. I think constraints are very important because they decide how one can deliver their message, and can also decide who are the people hearing the message. The context of a situation also has a lot to do with rhetorical analysis because understanding the context of something is the first step to understanding someones perspective.

For my reading response on The Cleanest line I chose an article about gold mining harming the environment in Northern Ireland. This article caught my attention mainly because of the location. Typically when you hear about resource extracting harming the environment it’s in poor countries with very few laws regarding protecting the environment. I thought it was very odd that a country within the UK would allow this to happen. The article talked about how a Canadian gold company had received a license to gold mine a large piece of land in Northern Ireland. Most locals in the area are very against the land being used for mining due to the catasrophical effects to the environment. The goal is to gather enough support against the mines being built so that the company will back off. One really important point the article makes is how silly gold is. Gold serves very little purpose other than being used as a way for rich people to show that they’re rich. I think this is a really important point because it shows how we as a society dictate what we need and don’t need. Is it really worth it to harm the environment for a material object that can’t really be used to help our society function? I believe that we can help save the environment by cutting back on material objects like jewelry, phones, clothes, and other accessories. The fact that these groups are coming out in protest of their government and this company is really powerful and shows that if enough common people can come together they can stay up to people who don’t have good intentions.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.